Digimon Adventure 03: The Final Battle
by Luckynlove
Summary: 25 years have passed and the world seems to be at peace. That is until a new set of DigiDestined were forced into the Digital World and the original twelve can't get them out. Not to mention The Darkness spreading into the Real World! Now it's up to the children to stop the madness! Based off of the 02 epilogue and my previous stories.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A/N: In honor of the Digimon Anniversary, I give you a new story! Are you ready for this last adventure?

* * *

Chapter 1

"Have fun, okay?" Davis told Daisuke. The two were riding in the car in silence as Daisuke hugged DemiVeemon closer. "Summer camp isn't that bad."

"For little kids, maybe not. But I'm fourteen." He rolled his eyes.

Davis pulled the car up to the parking lot of the school. "But you're not going to do the activities they're doing. You're just going to volunteer." He clarified.

"Will the food be good, Digi-daddy?" DemiVeemon asked.

Veemon smiled and gave a wink before answering "That's questionable."

Davis finally pulled into a parking spot, making Daisuke's heart rate go up. This is it. He's about to lead a pack for the first time. And to think, this started in a conversation that had nothing to do with him. Davis was talking to Tai about soccer until it turned into Tai's first day at summer camp. He said it was a good idea to get one with nature and become a man. And that's how Daisuke got involved. Plus, he was going to transfer to an upper level high school soon. He needs something to put on his résumé.

Daisuke slowly crawled out of the car with DemiVeemon tightly in his arms. The poor Digimon had a hard time breathing! Davis and Veemon climbed out as well and everyone met at the trunk of the car. Davis opened his arms wide for a hug but Daisuke stepped back. "Dad…" He looked around at a few girls that walked by. Color his face red because he was about to start blushing!

"Right, right." Davis said, putting his arms down. "You're at that time when you don't need your daddy hugging you." He held out a hand instead for a handshake. "Have a good trip, musuko."

Daisuke smiled as he grabbed his father's hand with pride and shook it. "Thanks, Dad."

Davis opened the trunk for him. "You'll do great. I know you will."

Daisuke picked out his large blue duffle bag and strapped it over a shoulder. "Thanks, Dad. I'll do my best."

"Bye, Digi-daddy." DemiVeemon waved.

"Bye, Digi-son!" Veemon replied as Daisuke headed off.

Davis sighed as he saw his only son leaving as a boy only to come back as a man. "I love you, musuko." He said, but Daisuke was already out of earshot. "He grows up so fast."

A car pulled up next to him. Davis watched Daisuke enter the school building as one of the other fathers told his son "Have fun and make new friends." The voice sounded familiar to Davis, causing him to turn around. It was good ol' T.K. with his son, Connor. "Before you know it, summer camp will stay in your memories."

"And into my memoirs!" Connor joked. "Bye, Dad!"

"Bye, Connor!" T.K. called.

"Sending your kid off too, I see." Davis observed. "Is this the first time?"

T.K. nodded. "He was really nervous about this until he heard that Daisuke and Josh were going too."

Davis smiled as he saw Connor go inside with his Tokomon. "They grow up quick, don't they?" He took a deep breath before admitting "This is the second time we've been apart, but this is the first time with me being the new me. He's going to be kind of on his own."

"All the joys of being a father." T.K. patted his back. "Have you ever gone to the Digital World lately?"

"No, why?" Veemon and Patamon were at full attention now.

"Cody said he's been there and a Centarumon was controlled by a black hex nut wrapped around his leg."

"How bizarre." Veemon commented.

"It is." Patamon said. "What do we do?"

"Well, we make sure the kids aren't involved." T.K. said. "Then, we can go to the Digital World and find out."

Davis snapped his fingers. "Oh, I can't! I have a meeting to go to today."

"And, T.K., don't forget your deadline." Patamon chimed in.

T.K. sighed. "You're right. We'll think of something."

"Maybe our kids can think of something." Veemon said, looking at the school building. "They _are_ the new DigiDestined, aren't they?"

T.K. nodded. "I believe so. They are the only kids with digivices."

Meanwhile, Daisuke met Mr. Fujiyama. His father used to be Tai's teacher. Like father like son! "Great to see you early, Daisuke!"

"I can't wait!" Daisuke said with fake enthusiasm.

"Some of the kids from your group aren't here yet, so get to know the ones that are." He handed him a clipboard. "Again, it's nice to have you onboard!"

After a pat on the back, Mr. Fujiyama left Daisuke alone with his camper, Connor, who sat there smiling at him. "Hi." Connor greeted.

"Hi... Connor, right?" He nodded as Daisuke checked his name off of the list. "So what are you in for?"

At first, Connor was taken aback by this question. This wasn't prison. "My dad thought it would be a good idea. And it might be fun!"

"I'm so excited!" Tokomon bounced.

"Shh!" Connor and Daisuke hissed as they frantically hid him and DemiVeemon from the teachers walking by.

"Sorry." Tokomon squeaked.

"We can't have the teachers knowing you're going too." Connor told him. "Digimon aren't allowed."

"Of course, Dad doesn't know that." Daisuke winked towards DemiVeemon who snickered and bounced. "But you have to stay quiet."

"Oh right." DemiVeemon hushed.

Daisuke looked around at all the kids getting there things together and meeting others. "I can't believe we're gathering all of these kids from all over the Kanto Region to go on this trip."

Connor looked around. "Yeah."

"The names on this list look familiar but I don't remember." He handed the clipboard to him.

Connor scanned the list and smiled. "These are our friends from DigiWorld! What are the odds?"

"Our friends?" He took the clipboard back and looked at it. "Those kids from the Digital World?" Connor nodded. "How cool."

"Here comes one now!" DemiVeemon said.

The two boys turned around and saw Makoto with Tanemon on his head. On the way to the tables with our other heroes, he was greeted by the cheerleaders and the football team and any other popular kid from Odaiba Middle School.

"It's Tanemon!" Tokomon cheered.

"Hey, Makoto!" Daisuke called and waved him over here. "What are you doing with a Tanemon on your head? You're going to get it taken up."

Daisuke reached over to grab it but Makoto maneuvered around him. "As far as the teachers know, this isn't Tanemon. It's my abnormal hat."

"It sure is weird!" Connor giggled.

"So which team am I in?" He asked, sitting next to Connor.

"Ours." Connor replied.

"Great. I don't have to get up. Mom woke me up so early just to get new clothes."

Connor looked him up and down. But he got confused. "What's new?"

"Everything in Mom's closet." The three boys shared in a laugh.

"Oh, Daisuke!" Daisuke turned around only to see Aika standing inches away with a clipboard. "I didn't know you were volunteering too!"

Little Sam stepped from behind her and waved. "Hi, Connor."

"Hi, Sam!"He waved back.

"I brought your dad's book. Hopefully, the bus ride is long enough for me to read it!"

"Are you talking about those DigiDestined books?" Makoto asked.

"Yeah! Do you read them?" Sam asked.

"Just the first one." He rolled his eyes. "You only need to read one to know that Tai will be with Sora."

"No way!" Aika stomped her foot. "I'm on Team Matt!"

"Matt? Are you kidding?" Makoto asked. "That Matt is so obsessed with his brother. He doesn't have time for a girlfriend."

"But that's what girls like." She said. "Eventually, she'll fall for him. I mean what girl wouldn't? He's so cute!"

"How?" Daisuke asked. "He's just a book character."

"He looks beautiful in my mind. The description is very precise. I mean, what girl doesn't like spikey blonde hair and deep blue eyes? Anyway, why do you care so much? Are you jealous?" She winked.

Daisuke raised his eyebrows and took a step back. "Of who? Why? I don't..."

"What do you think, Connor? Your the author's son. Who's it gonna be?"

Everyone turned to Connor who was preoccupied with something in his backpack. The kids leaned forward to get a good look at what he was doing. "Connor?" Makoto tapped his shoulder.

Aika adjusted her glasses. "Are you filming us?"

Connor turned back to the group who were all confused. "Um, yeah." He took out his video camera. "I want to document this trip and your argument just seemed so…fascinating."

"How do I look?" Aika lit up.

"Fabulous." Connor replied.

Daisuke looked around at the other volunteers who had their groups of five almost complete. "I wonder where the rest of my group is."

"Yeah, mine too." Aika looked around. "Come to think of it, I only have Sam here."

The kids kept looking until they spotted little Yukio and Shoji running passed the people with Kim and Josh following behind. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Daisuke and Aika called as the two little ones skid to a stop in front of their leaders.

"Where are you guys off to?" Aika asked.

"We're going on a camping trip!" Yukio cheered excitedly.

"Yeah!" Shoji chimed in. "I'm Shoji Ishida."

"And I'm Yukio Kamiya. Are any of you our camp leaders?"

Daisuke looked down his list. "Oh, right. You're Tai's son. You're with me."

"And you're with me along with your sister." Aika told Shoji.

"Yay!" Both boys cheered as they sat at their table. Kim and Josh finally caught up.

"Is that everyone?" Aika asked.

Daisuke snickered as he pointed towards the entrance. "Don't forget the Nerd Brigade!"

He was pointing to Mel and Eriko. They were holding hands and giggling about something. Aw, young love! "Eriko, Mel, you guys are on our team." Aika told them. "And now I'm complete! We can get on the bus now."

Daisuke squinted his eyes at them and back to his list. "I still have one more left." He said. "Where's Hitomi Izumi-Tachikawa?"

"She's at the computer lab." Tanemon told him.

"Shh!" Makoto hissed. "Remember, you're a hat."

"Oh right."

"What is she doing in the computer lab?" Daisuke asked. "She's supposed to check in first!"

"Chill. She just wanted to get her flash drive that she left the last day of school. No one knew it'll take this long."

Daisuke shrugged. "Well, let's go get her. Come on, team!"

"We'll go with you!" Aika said, jumping to his side. "I mean, we have to stick together."

"Why?"

Aika looked around as sweat started to drop. "Because…um…because…" She snapped her fingers. "Haven't you heard of the buddy system? Anyway, let's go!"

"Right!" He adjusted the goggles on top of his head. "Let's do it!"

The halls were dark as every little sound echoed off the walls. The group made sure not to get caught by the teachers. "Mr. Daisuke, I have to go to the bathroom." Yukio raised his hand.

"Shh!" Everyone hissed.

"But I really have to go." Yukio whispered.

"Later." Daisuke whispered back.

"Here it is." Josh whispered. He opened the door to the computer lab only to find a hectic Motimon scuttling about.

"Where's Hitomi?" Makoto asked.

"The computer took her!" He pointed to the computer screen with the Digital Gate open. How could this have happened? The kids were struck with panic.

"What do you mean it just took her?" Daisuke asked.

"We just came here to take the flash drive but the computer turned on and sucked her inside." Motimon explained. No one said anything except for Daisuke who scoffed.

"Okay, Hitomi, quit joking around. Come out or we'll miss the bus." He said.

"Maybe it did take her." Mel said. "The computer's on."

"I believe him!" Eriko confirmed.

"Well, since Hitomi's the only computer whiz in our group, what do we do?" Connor asked.

"Get Sam to do it." Aika answered, pushing her brother toward the crime scene. "See if she's in there."

"Um…" He looked at the screen but he started to tremble. Then he looked at the group. "I don't know what to do."

Suddenly, the computer started to glow brighter, grabbing Sam and sucking him inside. "Sam!" Aika called, dashing to the machine. "Give me back my brother!" She started clicking random things but Daisuke grabbed her shoulder.

"Aika, stop! You don't know what you're doing! You could delete them!"

Makoto pushed passed him. "Let her do what she wants. At least she's trying to get our friends out." He started pressing buttons.

"I want to press buttons!" Yukio said, crawling underneath to get to the keyboard.

"Me too!" Shoji said, doing the same.

"Shoji, no!" Kim said following him. The rest chimed in with suggestions and arguments. The computer lab became a room of loud cacophony and button pressing, and Connor was getting the whole thing on camera! But the chaos ended when the lights came back and swallowed all ten remaining kids and their Digimon.

And they were gone...

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And that's chapter 1! Tell me what you think! Happy August 1st!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: I apologize for having this almost two months late. As you probably noticed, school just started and this is my first adventure story. I was working on this story as hard as I can! Also technical difficulties made me rewrite a majority of it twice. So I needed to make sure this chapter flows with the later chapters. But now that I'm back, here's chapter 2!

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Chapter 2

"Look..." Tai gasped in amazement. "I can't believe we're doing this again."

"I know. But this is the last time. It won't happen again." Kari told him as Michio wrapped his strong arm around her.

"Are you kidding me?" Tai laughed. "This is fantastic!" He rubbed Kari's bulging stomach. "I'm going to be an uncle!"

"You already are one." Cho came in and set a basket of laundry down in front of the couch. "Now what's going on?"

"I'm pregnant! We're going to have another baby!" She clapped her hands.

"That's fantastic." She replied with fake enthusiasm as she started folding the massive amount of laundry.

"Aren't you excited?" Tai asked. "I thought you loved babies."

"I do." Cho sighed. "I'm just worried about our baby. Yukio is only five years old and he's going to summer camp. How did he even get in? He's too young."

"Because the camp is open to all ages with a parent's permission. And he's in good hands. Josh is with him and Daisuke's a volunteer camp leader guy. He'll be fine." He sat down next to his wife and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry so much." Even if Tai was keeping his cool on the outside, he was feeling just as worried on the inside. Somewhere in his DigiDestined Leader Senses, he felt something weird. Like his son in tears.

And he was. "We're going to miss the trip!" He cried.

"Forget the trip!" Eriko said. "We're in the dangerous Digital World!"

"And our parents aren't here!" Aika said. "We're going to die!" All three of them including Shoji started crying.

"Hitomi!" Makoto called. "Where are you?"

"Right here!" She called from behind several bushes. "Did you guys get sucked in too?" He nodded.

"What do we do?" Mel asked. "Dad won't let us be here."

"Do you see him?" Daisuke asked.

"Well, no..."

"Then quit complaining! If we knew how to get out we would have by now." He crossed his arms and began to think.

"I still have to go!" Yukio stomped.

"Use the bush, take a buddy, and make it quick." And Yukio did just that as he ran off with Hitomi. "Okay, I suggest we start walking."

"Are you kidding?" Kim asked. "That's a terrible idea. First of all, we can't leave Yukio and Hitomi behind. Second, why should go anywhere if we don't know where we are?"

"Because I'm the camp leader and I'm here to lead you. That means do as I say!" He threw down his fists to prove how tough he was.

"No, Aika is my leader."

Daisuke pouted. "Well, then, because I'm the oldest!"

"Can I please have a more logical argument?" Eriko asked.

"Maybe we should walk around the area to get familiar with it." Aika suggested. "Maybe then we could see what's going on."

"I agree." Sam said. "Let's go after they get back."

()()

"Here we are, in the mysterious Digital World." Connor said in a low volume. "I'm with the other DigiDestined on our expedition to what seems like nowhere. So far..."

"Look at that!" Josh called and pointed. Connor pointed the camera to the beach where seven phone booths conveniently sat. "What are they?"

"Beats me." Kim said. "Let's take a look."

The sand was dry and pretty hard against their feet. It was as if the place didn't get much rain. Mel opened the door but it fell right off. "Careful." Eriko told him.

He nodded and picked up the phone. "Look at this dinosaur." He muttered. Then to the others, he said "It doesn't even have a touch screen!"

They all gasped and looked at one for themselves. Josh pressed a few buttons and paused. "Oops. I messed up. Where's the delete button?"

"I don't think it has one." Connor told him. "Maybe you have to hang it up and try again."

"The whole thing?" He sighed. "How do I even know I'm pressing the right buttons? It doesn't have a screen. What phone doesn't have a screen?" He hung up the phone and the whole thing collapsed. The boys looked at each other before they tiptoed out, whistling as if nothing happened.

"These look like those phones in the old movies." Makoto said. "You know, the kind our parents liked when they were growing up."

"Ew." Aika dropped the phone and the rest came down with it. "What now?"

"Well, since we don't know how to use the phones and don't even know if they work, we'll have to find something else." Kim said.

Mel shook his head. "I'm going to keep trying." And like his father, he did just that.

"Look! A vending machine!" Makoto pointed out, not even listening to his crush. The vending machine randomly stood between some shady trees. It was secluded which meant that it was probably pretty safe.

"Well, I am kind of thirsty." Daisuke said.

"Me too." Both boys rushed over to it. Daisuke put in a quarter but didn't get a soda. Instead, a bunch of Numamon spilled out, making Daisuke fall over. Makoto decided differently and began to run away.

"Hey!" Daisuke called. "Wait!"

The Numamon swarmed and started throwing their "sludge". Because we all know what it really is! The kids ran away as fast as they could, trying their best not to leave the younger kids behind. Finally, the kids turned a corner and the "sludge" flinging came to a stop.

"Is it in my hair?" Aika asked, combing through it with her fingers.

"Is it in mine?" Makoto asked, doing the same.

"I want to go home." Shoji sobbed.

"It's okay." Kim rubbed his back. "We'll get back."

"No we won't!" Shoji stomped his foot.

"Okay, okay. Don't bizzle out." Hitomi told him. "We'll make it out."

Shoji pouted, dropping Tsunomon on the ground. Meanwhile, Yukio sat down with his Koromon and sighed. "I'm hungry."

"Me too." Shoji said, sitting next to him.

"There's plenty of fruit in the trees." Tanemon pointed out.

"And fish in the sea." Connor pointed out.

"Fish are friends! Not food!" Bukamon complained. "When I digivolve to Gomamon, I'm going to have to use them!"

"But we have to eat something." Josh said. "Fish is a good source of something or another. I mean, they put it on the food pyramid for a reason."

"Fine." Bukamon crossed his arms as Mel returned.

"You won't believe this, but none of the phones are working." He said. "They keep taking me to some automatic voice message saying the most random things. But they're so old that it all sounded melted and the words came out so slow."

"So, I guess we can just take a break and look for food." Daisuke said. "My team can go catch fish while Aika's team can get the fruit and firewood or whatever else."

"Great." Aika said.

"But my best friend's on the wrong side." Yukio told him.

"But your cousin is on this side." Daisuke said. "And you'll see him again."

"Okay." He picked Koromon up from the ground. "Bye, Shoji."

"Bye, Yukio."

()()

"I'm here with Daisuke's group." Connor pointed the camera to the leader. "He's the one who inherited the leadership official goggles. It's kind of similar to the one in Dad's books. Anyway, unfortunately, I'm separated from the others so I don't know what they're up to. Something worth filming could be there! But maybe we can get some action by fishing."

He looked around.

"Nothing so far. Hitomi's the only girl here, Makoto fell asleep with the fishing pole between his legs, and Yukio isn't even fishing anymore. He's just playing with Koromon. Everything's quite…boring."

"Connor! Get focused!" Daisuke shouted.

"Okay!" He called back, grabbing his fishing pole. "Nothing's going on here."

Makoto suddenly shot up like a rocket. Luckily, the camera caught it. "What's the problem?" Daisuke asked him.

"Don't you hear that?" He asked. Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened. But nothing could be heard. Finally, a ripple in the water was spotted.

"It can't be!" DemiVeemon coward in fear. "It can't be!"

"Who is it?" Hitomi asked.

"It's..." Motimon started but was interrupted by Seadramon exploding out of the water with a great roar! "It's Seadramon!"

"Seadramon?" The kids asked.

"Yes. That Digimon can be pretty mean and nasty when you get between him and his water." He introduced.

"What do we do?" Hitomi asked. Seadramon came like a bullet to the kids' location.

"Run!" Daisuke yelled.

"Wait!" Josh called. "There's a thing on him!"

Everyone focused on what he was talking about. Around the Seadramon's neck was a black hex nut. "A…nut?" Makoto asked.

"Maybe it's choking him." Josh told them.

Salamon jumped to his side. "Time to fight?"

"Uh, sure, but…" Before Josh could finish, Salamon was digivolving.

"Salamon digivolve to…" And before you knew it, he was… "…Gatomon!"

Daisuke watched Josh's Gatomon admiring himself. He finally felt something come to him: a light bulb! "I got it! Everyone digivolve!"

"Okay, but our parents better not show up." Connor said. "That would be a mess if we got everyone mixed up."

"Just do it, will ya!" Daisuke yelled back. And with the other five digivices wailing, the Digimon grew in size and level as they became new creatures entirely. They jumped into action doing their various attacks as the DigiDestined cheered them on.

"Poison Ivy!" Makoto's Palmon said as he wrapped her vines around the black nut. "I can't pull it off!"

"Then let's break it!" Daisuke's Veemon said. "V-head butt!"

"Lightning paw!"

"Super Shocker!"

"Pepper Breath!"

"Boom Bubble!"

And with all attacks at once, the Seadramon was relieved of the nut. The kids rejoiced as it plunged back into the water confused and unable to recall what had just happened.

"Now, what do we do?" Josh asked Daisuke.

"Do we have the fish?" He asked. They nodded. "Good! Come on, everybody let's cook it!"

Meanwhile, Shoji and Kim were carrying berries to the campsite Mel and Eriko constructed. "Can we take a break now?" Shoji asked. "I'm tired."

"You did a good job. Go ahead and take a rest." Mel told them with a smile.

"Thanks." Kim put down her berries on a huge leaf they found along with her brother. Both of them lied by the fire while Mel dragged around big sticks and put one on the ground. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"I'm trying my best to make shelter." He put one against another. "We found a rope somewhere in the woods."

Eriko watched with admiring eyes. "Isn't he the greatest, Upamon?"

Upamon bounced in response. "We'd be dead without Mel! Oh, and the rest of the team!"

"Yeah." She agreed, keeping her eyes on her boyfriend.

"Come on, Sam. It's just a few more steps." Aika was saying as she entered the camp site without her brother. "Hurry up!"

Little Sam was holding a bucket of water, wheezing and trying his best to keep up. "C…Coming…" He panted.

"You made him carry that all the way here?" Kim asked.

"He insisted." She shrugged. Then to Sam, "Give me the water before you hurt yourself." Instead of handing it to her, Sam continued to pant and sweat as he set it on the ground. His arms were way too tired to lift it to her level. "You didn't sweat in it, did you?"

"N…No." He panted. "Can… Can I…drink?"

"Is it fresh?" Mel asked.

"Not yet." Aika said. "We have to boil it first."

"Need…water…" Sam plopped onto his knees.

Mel grabbed a water bottle from his bag and tossed it to him. "It's a good thing I came prepared!"

"Here comes Daisuke's team!" Aika cheered as the group came with their Digimon back to normal. "And they brought back food!"

Yukio flashed his fish before them. "Hey, everybody, look! I caught a whopper!" He said, holding it with his little fingers over the fire.

"Hey, Yukio," Kim said, handing him a stick, "use this before you burn your fingers off."

"Okay."

()()

"Fifteen minutes until show!" One of the stage managers told Mimi. She was getting her makeup done for the big show at the time. "Fifteen minutes!"

"Thank you!" Mimi called to him.

Palmon came in seconds later with a cell phone. "It's for you." She told her. "It's a call from the school."

Mimi rolled her eyes and held out a hand. "I told them Makoto's stomach is sensitive whenever he's on the bus. They should've known this would happen." Palmon handed her the phone. "Hello?"

"Mrs. Izumi-Tachikawa?"

"Yes?"

"This is Mr. Fujiyama from Odaiba Elementary. I'm sorry to inform you that your son and daughter have not made it onto our bus."

Mimi gasped as she nearly dropped the phone. "What do you mean? We dropped them off on time. Why aren't they on the bus? Where else can they possibly be?"

"We believe they are still at school but by now they could be anywhere. I'm deeply sorry." He told her.

She shook her head. "And you didn't do a head count before you headed out?"

"That's the weirdest part of it. We counted everyone twice. Somehow, the numbers came out the same. The only way I noticed is when I tried to talk to Daisuke but he and your children were nowhere to be found."

"Their whole group...?"

"...gone."

Mimi took in a deep breath, gulping this bad news down like a pill. Meanwhile, the stage manager went by calling "Ten minutes 'til air!"

"I have one more question before I go on the air." She continued.

"Anything, Mrs. Izumi-Tachikawa."

"Who are the other kids that are missing?"

* * *

Trivia: The telephone booth scene was one of my favorites.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: Pennies for your thoughts? Digital pennies...? I'm posting the same day as Chapter 2 because it's been so late!

* * *

Chapter 3

"How will Eriko survive?" Terri asked her husband, Cody. "She can't go missing! She had a hard time agreeing to summer camp."

"I know." He agreed. "That is until we told her Mel will be there. Maybe I should have given her the talk."

_"The_ talk?" He nodded. "Don't be silly. She's not capable of expressing all those feelings yet."

"Well, it's never too early."

"Cody, focus." Terri commanded. "Our daughter and her friends are out in the middle of nowhere, needing our help. We can worry about the talk later. Right now, they need our help."

As if on cue, the phone rang. The couple looked at each other, already knowing who it is. "Hida residence." Cody answered.

"It's Tai. Did the school call you?" He asked.

"They did. Everyone's missing." He answered.

"Come to my place as soon as you can."

"We're on it." Cody hung the phone. "Tai wants us to meet at his place to discuss this."

"Your DigiDestined friends, right?" He nodded. "Good. Tai will know what to do. You go. I'll stay here just in case someone else calls."

"Okay. I'll be back." And with that, Cody left the house.

At the Kamiya house, all of the DigiDestined gathered around with worried looks on their faces. Kari's, Yolei's, and Mimi's eyes were puffy and wet with tears. "Sam can't be gone. What if he has an asthma attack?" Yolei asked, wiping her tears.

"Aw, honey," Ken kissed her forehead and pulled her into an embrace, "you seem to forget that our son isn't asthmatic."

"What if he is and doesn't know it?"

"We'll find him, Yolei." Tai reassured her with a firm hand on her shoulder. "We'll find all of our kids."

"I have an idea where they are." Izzy spoke up. Davis's cell phone began to ring. "I'm pretty sure they're in the Digital World."

"Good job, Izzy." Tai said with a big smile. Ever since these two met, Izzy is always encouraged by Tai with the same three words. Meanwhile, Davis's cell phone kept ringing.

"How did you figure that out?" Joe asked. "I was just there."

"The Digital World is a big place, Joe." Matt said. "We were just on planet Earth but we didn't see the United States president anywhere."

"Still sarcastic I see." Joe rolled his eyes.

"But he has a point." Sora said. "It could take forever to find twelve children in a big world."

Davis's cell phone kept ringing. Mimi crossed her arms and glared at it while Davis kept his eyes on Tai. "I'm sure we can find them with our digivices." He told him.

"That's true, Davis." He answered. "You guys have to open up the gate."

"I'll do it." T.K. volunteered as Davis's cell phone rang yet again.

"For the love of all that is living, will you please answer that phone?!" Mimi yelled.

"Aw, but I don't wanna talk to Nick." He took it out and answered. "Hi, Nick. I can't talk. I have to save my son's life. You're in charge." He waited for an answer before saying "I'm going to be out until further notice! I'm the boss and I'm telling you to get to work so I can find my lost child! Oh, and have a nice day." He hung up the phone. "Happy, Mimi?"

She frowned and moved closer so that they saw each other's eyes become one. "I'm ecstatic." Davis frowned back before she moved away. "My children are lost in the Digital World! How do you think I feel?"

"Not to mention what else we saw there." Izzy said. "Joe and Cody emailed me about black hex nuts on the Digimon, making them act peculiarly. Our research team has confirmed it and has seen it for themselves."

"What do you mean black hex nut? What's that?" Yolei questioned. Michio grabbed the small tool from the tool box and showed them the small piece of metal. "That's around the Digimon?"

Ken took the nut and held it up to the light. "So that's what it is."

He passed it to Sora next who held out her hand. "It's kind of like a gear and kind of like a ring."

Matt nodded. "Those are our kids alright."

"We have to find them." Kari said. "They're too small to handle that kind of nonsense. Josh is supposed to make Michio a wallet from summer camp, not another battle story!"

"Kari, calm down." T.K. told her. "We'll get them."

"No…" Cody said, his voice dark. "…we won't."

"Why not?" Yolei asked.

"I tried using my D3 on the computer, but it wouldn't work."

"You tried going without us?!" Yolei threw the baby to Ken and charged after her friend.

"No, honest!" He replied.

"Don't hurt him, Yolei!" Davis shouted. "We can't afford to lose our defense attorney in case one of the parents sues us for whatever happens to their kids in the Digital World!"

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked. "We're all here. I'm sure none of us will sue."

"Well…" Matt started but was nudged in the ribs by his wife.

"No one will sue!" She frowned towards him.

Matt rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Anyway, if we're going to do something, we have to do it within the next few days. I have one week left on Earth. And I can't leave knowing my only daughter and my four-year-old son are still in DigiWorld."

"And we'll get them back." Tai told him.

"How, Mr. Leader? How do you suppose we get our children back home safely? We can't get in through the gate!"

"Izzy, his team, and I will work on it. Meanwhile, you guys just go home and get some rest while we get this under control."

Matt rolled his eyes again. "So there's nothing we can do?"

"At the moment…" Tai trailed off, looking at Izzy who just shook his head.

"Let me help, Tai." Davis said. "Maybe you guys can use my D3 to get in."

"Good idea, Davis."

"Meanwhile, we're leaving so a bunch of guys can press buttons and not know what they're doing!" Matt grabbed Sora's arm. "We're going home."

Tai stepped in and grabbed Sora's other arm. "Don't drag her around like that!"

Sora shook both of her arms loose. Mimi stood up from the couch she was sitting on. She knew something was wrong when Sora didn't say anything else. She opened the door and left followed by Matt. Tai stared at the rest of the group when Matt slammed the door. "What's their problem?" He asked.

"Maybe they're stressed." Kari said. "We all are." And with that, she left to her room with tears falling.

"The best thing we can do is have hope for these kids." T.K. said. "I mean, they have digivices, they have Digimon. They'll be fine."

"You're right." Joe said. "I believe in them." He made his way to the door. "But I still have to leave. My wife needs twenty-four-hour care and I left her asleep."

"We all make sacrifices." Tai gave him a pat on the back. "I'll call if anything comes up."

"Thanks." Then to everyone he said "Bye" and left.

"I guess we should go too." Yolei said.

"I'll call you all later." Tai told them as everyone headed out.

()()

"Shoji, you idiot!" Kim yelled. "Look what you did!"

"I didn't do anything!" Her little brother yelled back in defense. The two Ishida kids looked in horror at a broken TV port: their only way out of the Digital World.

"You broke it, didn't you?" She pressed.

"No, he did!" Shoji pointed to Daisuke who just stood there flabbergasted.

"What? You ratted me out!" He yelled back. "I mean, I had to smash it. A Digimon almost took our fish." He gave them a sheepish smile.

"If we had the Digiport, we wouldn't have to worry about the fish! We could be eating cheeseburgers!" Makoto yelled.

"Now, now, let's not panic." Josh said. "I'm sure there's something out there…"

"Josh!" Everyone turned around to see a black hex nut floating behind Josh's head. Connor took it while it was lingering in midair. "This could've hit you." He said.

"These black nuts are like cockroaches! You can't get rid of them." Aika complained.

"Didn't our parents tell this story?" Hitomi asked.

"My parents are too busy for stories." Kim crossed her arms.

"The black gear?" Makoto asked.

"Black gear? No, it was a dark ring." Eriko said.

"But they both came from evil Digimon." Josh pointed out.

"That's it!" Everyone looked towards Daisuke. He proudly adjusted his goggles. "This is the work of the darkness! That means we're put here to stop it as the DigiDestined!"

"No, we're not." Mel interfered. "The DigiDestined are our parents. Not us."

"Don't you see? That's why we're the only ones at school with digivices." Kim said.

"We're destined." Eriko looked at Mel who nodded.

"Now you're getting it! Come on, everyone!" Daisuke said. "Let's do it!"

"Do what?" Yukio asked.

"Defeat the darkness!"

The new DigiDestined team pumped their fist into the air and gave a loud cheer. This morning, they were just campers. By the end of the day, they'll be heroes.

()()

Meanwhile, back at home, Sora leaned on the doorway as Matt was vigorously going through his closet. He opened many packages, boxes, and bags for something in particular as soon as he got home. Sora didn't even ask what it was. She just asked "Why did you have to act like that in front of all our friends? Do you have any idea how embarrassed I am?"

"Sora, my kids are in the Digital World and they could die like we almost did." He said.

"But we didn't."

"But we could have."

Sora sat down on the master bed while she continued to watch him plow through more junk. "But we didn't. And that's because we had our Digimon with us."

He took a deep breath. "Right. I forgot."

"They'll be fine."

"But I can't just sit here and do nothing about it, and Tai knows that."

"He knows a lot of things." She said. "But what can we do?"

"I don't know." He reached up to the top rack and started pulling things down.

"Look, I know you're stressed, but why take it out on my closet?"

"Our closet."

"Right, our closet."

"I'm looking for something." He said, reaching for the top corner. "Got it." He pulled it down quickly and held it against his body for Sora not to see.

She just watched him with disappointment. "I know what that is." She said.

Matt turned around with the baggie in plain sight. "How did you know?"

"I didn't. I just knew you'd cave." She grabbed the baggie from him. "Care to explain why there are drugs in my house?"

"Our house."

"Whatever! Why do you have this? Our kids live here!" She looked at it and back at him with tears in her eyes. "I thought you quit. I thought you were finished."

"I am. I was just going to get rid of it." He reached for it but Sora pulled it away.

"Don't lie to me."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's only when I'm stressed."

"Stressed? You smoke this when you're stressed?" She crossed her arms. He nodded. "Here's some friendly advice. Take a yoga class!"

"Fine! I'll just throw it away and have a beer. Is that better?"

"When do the lies end with you?" She pushed the bag into his chest and fled into the living room.

"Sora," Matt followed her, "I love those kids. You know I do. I just want them to be safe. And Tai won't let me help, so I'm stressed out. I don't know what else to do."

"I'll help you." She took it from him. "I know it goes against everything you stand for, but I'll help." Matt followed her into the bathroom where she flushed the substance down the toilet. He watched as the water swirled around, sucking everything away.

"Thank you." He told her.

"I know that was hard. But at least you get a reward." Sora smiled brightly as she wrapped her arms around him. Matt knew for sure what that gesture meant. Lights out!

()()

"Look at the stars, Daisuke." Aika said as soon as the sun began to set and the stars were visible. "Aren't they beautiful?"

He looked up at the stars. They were definitely strange, being in the Digital World and all. He just imagined them being filled with darkness. They wouldn't shine as bright. They wouldn't guide anyone home. No one could make stories out of them. They would just be filled with…dark. So much dark. Those evil Digimon, whoever they are, needed to be stopped.

"What's the matter?" She asked, scooting next to him at a big tree. After all, under the stars and at a tree was a romantic spot to be.

"It's just that..." He stood up. "These kids need a leader. Something told me Dad wanted me to be that leader."

"Why you?" Aika stood next to him. "Is it because you're the oldest."

"No." He took off the sacred goggles. "You see these? They used to be an ordinary pair of goggles. They just sat on someone's head. Now it means something. Dad was given these goggles for a reason."

"You don't say."

He nodded. "These belonged to Tai first. He went through his adventures in them. That was almost thirty years ago. Dad broke his when he first got to the Digital World four years later. Tai said 'The leader of the DigiDestined wouldn't look right without his goggles' and that's what Dad told me when he gave me these."

"He believes you were meant to wear them?"

He nodded again. "You'd think a pair of goggles that survived one adventure through the Digital World would break like Dad's did. But they didn't. After thirty years, these goggles remain unscathed. Not a scratch. Not a dent."

Aika put a hand on his shoulder and gently took them from him. "And you're nervous you'll mess up?"

"No." He held his hands under hers as she moved it around between her fingers. "I'm not as close to them as they are with each other. What if they don't listen?"

Aika handed him the goggles. "We don't have a choice. If we don't listen, we could die. Now, put these goggles on and lead!"

Daisuke smiled brightly as he put it on. "You're right. We're in a crucial time. We can't fight about the little things."

Aika held his hand. "Come on back to the campsite. We need sleep."

Meanwhile, Josh and Connor were filming the whole conversation from above. The large branch gave the kids the support they needed to be incognito. Once they were gone, Connor snickered. "I wish this was a TV camera. We'd get viewers! That was like the perfect scene for a movie!"

Josh did pull ups on the strong end of the branch while Connor kept filming something else. "Connor, put the camera up." He said. "You'll run out of battery."

He did what he was told even if he did have three other packs. "Is something wrong?"

Josh pulled himself up. "I just don't know..." He told him. "Are we really the DigiDestined?" Connor nodded. "So we really have to go through this."

"Are you scared?"

Josh smiled. "With you here?" He asked. "No."

* * *

Trivia: I read Cody's wife, Terri's, voice to have a strong Japanese accent.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: I hope you love this as much as I do. Can you spot any catch phrases?

* * *

Chapter 4

"So these are the new DigiDestined."

The sun was shining but the children were still asleep as a hooded man walked among them. He snaked around them with footsteps that barely touched the ground, so light. He watched them until Sam fluttered his eyes open.

"Hello!"

Sam's eyes grew in size as he screamed to the top of his lungs and yelled "It's a man!"

The other kids woke up and screamed as Daisuke and DemiVeemon took a stance in front of them. The man just laughed as he removed his hood to reveal his young face. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"No." The kids answered.

"I am Gennai." He bowed. "And you are the new warriors of our world."

"Well, we know that." Daisuke said. "What brings you here?"

"Yeah!" DemiVeemon chimed in.

"I came to warn you of the dangers lurking in the Digital World. You must be well armed and keep your Digimon healthy. I see you're doing well with defense now. I'll come back when you're really ready."

"Wait. You're leaving?" Hitomi asked. "But I have so many questions!"

"Me too!" Eriko shouted. "First, why are we here?"

"Because your parents loved each other enough to make you." He answered with pride.

The older kids blushed and shook their heads in embarrassment as Yukio and Shoji shared confused glances. "What?" They questioned.

"No, she meant, why are we in the Digital World?" Daisuke rephrased.

"You are here because there is great darkness among us. You twelve are destined to stop it." He answered.

"Is that it?" Mel asked after a long pause. "Any way how? Or who? Or what?"

"Well of course! You can stop them with your Digimon and digivices. No one knows where the black hex nuts are coming from, but it is up to you to somehow save us all."

"Like a superhero?" Yukio asked with excitement.

Gennai chuckled. "Yes, like a superhero but better because you are the DigiDestined."

Daisuke started getting pumped and excited after being called on a special mission. "Let's do it!"

"But wait." Hitomi interrupted. "Is there any way at all we can get some sort of region where this guy may be? I mean, the Digital World is a vast planet. By what I've heard, it's equivalent to Earth's mass. Therefore, it can take us years to go around the whole world to find who's responsible."

Gennai shook his head with a smile on his face. "Right. I forgot. You must be Izzy's daughter. Anyway, most of the activity has been directed here on File Island."

Daisuke turned back to his crew. "So the guy is somewhere on this island. That makes it easier for us to stop him! Who's with me?"

"Yeah! Me!" Yukio cheered.

"Like we have a choice." Mel said, pushing up his glasses.

"That's the spirit!" Bukamon giggled.

"I'm curious to know what'll happen next." Hitomi said.

"Me too!" Eriko said.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Yukio cheered.

"Yeah, let's…" Daisuke turned around and saw that Gennai was nowhere to be seen.

"He's gone…" Sam spoke up. "Was he ever here?"

"We can't be still dreaming." Kim stated. The kids looked around, but there was nothing there besides them.

"Forget him. Let's get going and find this guy!" Daisuke cheered.

While the new DigiDestined headed off to find the root to the problem, the old DigiDestined had problems of their own. Tai and Izzy met up at the computer lab at their old school. Izzy assumed that there would be some sort of way to get in using the good ol' computer they used to get in before. Izzy clicked a few buttons and typed a bit as Tai watched. Silence, save for the noises from the computer, was thick as he waited an hour for Izzy to say something.

Izzy opened his mouth to say something, making Tai's expression lighten up. However, he closed it again, making Tai relive boredom and worry. "Anything?" He whispered to his friend.

Izzy shook his head and continued. But finally, he got something. "It sucked her in."

"What?" Tai focused in on the screen.

"Do you remember when we used to be able to go in and out of the Digital World with the use of a digivice?"

Tai nodded. "But we can never use our digivices to do that. We had to use a D3 like what the second generation and our kids have."

"Right. But…" He clicked something. "…Hitomi didn't open the gate. None of our kids did, but it was opened."

"By who?" Tai moved closer.

Izzy typed in a few things and clicked other things. His fingers moved around rapidly only to conclude… "No data."

"So it opened by itself?" Izzy looked at his friend and nodded. "That's crazy."

"But that's the only way it could've happened. There's no physical data…"

Tai thought for a second. He's known Izzy for years and knew for sure that he could create miracles with a computer. However, it was Tai to believe miracles outside of them. "But there is a spiritual explanation."

"What's that?"

"They're the DigiDestined. And they were destined to be there."

Izzy smiled, thinking about the time when they were pulled to DigiWorld from summer camp. "Just like when we were kids, drafted."

"That had to be it." Tai snapped his fingers.

"Wait." Izzy turned his chair to face Tai. "Wasn't Davis with us?"

"Oh, right." Tai looked towards the door. "He said he'll be back."

As they continued with their work, Davis sat on the stair in the back hallway with his cellphone glued to his ear. "Hello? Nick? I just called to check in." As he listened, he scratched his fuzzy head. "Great. Keep up the good work." He hung up and took a deep breath before calling again. "Hello, Kari?"

"Davis, how are you?" She answered on the other line.

"Fine. How are you holding up?" He rubbed the back of his neck. He couldn't stop thinking about the danger the kids can run into.

"I'm a little better, knowing that Tai and Izzy are doing something. How about you?"

Davis sighed. "I'm…holding up."

"Are you okay?"

"It's just that…" He took a deep breath. "…I have to get to my son, but no one knows how to get in to DigiWorld. It's hard sitting on the sidelines."

"I know, but what can we do?"

"Something…" He said to himself. "We can't sit around and do nothing." Davis looked up when he heard the door to the computer lab open. Tai poked his head out and saw Davis. "I have to go. Tai might have something."

"Alright. Bye." Kari hung up the cellphone and tossed it on the couch. Her brown locks of hair bounced up and down as she sat on her husband's back. Michio, at the time, was doing pushups. "Michio, do you have to go so fast? You're making me dizzy." He slowed down. "Thanks." He didn't say anything. "That was Davis that called. He was just checking up." Silence still. "You know, you're a very good listener."

()()

"One hundred bottles of milk on the wall! One hundred bottles of milk!" Yukio sang to the top of his lungs. "You take one down, pass it around! Ninety-nine bottles of milk on the wall!"

"Ninety-nine bottles of milk on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of milk!" He and Shoji sang.

"Cut it out, Shoji! You're giving me a headache!" Kim complained.

"I want to sing too." Tsunamon complained. "But I don't know the words."

Josh smiled at the two boys. "You take one down, pass it around!"

"Ninety-eight bottles of milk on the wall!" The three sang.

"How do they get milk on the wall?" Hitomi asked.

"What kind of milk?" Motimon asked.

"How long has it been on the wall?" Eriko asked.

"Logic dictates that it can't be any good since it was on the wall. They most likely have dust in them." Sam spoke up.

"Yuck!" Minomon commented.

Aika scoffed. "Who drinks milk out of bottles anymore?"

"Can we stop?" Makoto asked. "My feet hurt and we don't know where we're going."

"Mine too." Aika said. Both of them collapsed onto the ground.

Yukio pulled out a small device from his pocket. He smiled, thinking about the day his father gave it to him: right before summer camp. "Hey, everybody, look! I got a monocular!"

"What's that?" Shoji asked.

Yukio pulled it out and took a look around. "Is there anything suspicious?" Daisuke asked him.

"No, but I see some of those nuts flying about near a mountain." Yukio saw that there had to be at least seven black hex nuts floating by, hitting a mountain. Then there were some more hitting a mountain completely parallel. "There are two mountains."

"Two?" Connor asked. "That means we have to…"

"Split up?" Mel asked, hugging his girlfriend tighter.

"I guess so." Daisuke said.

"Okay, then let's split up like before." Aika said. "My team will go to one mountain while Daisuke's team goes to the other." Everyone nodded and agreed. "We'll see which one of them is the cause of this and which one is the fake. Then we'll contact each other and take down the enemy!"

"Okay, everyone! Let's do it!" Daisuke pumped a fist in the air.

"See you guys later!" Aika winked as her group went in one direction.

"We'll meet you later!" Daisuke waved.

The long path after the separation was long and boring to Yukio's eyes. His Koromon looked up at him with boredom in his eyes. He smiled at the Digimon and took in a deep breath. "Ninety-eight bottles of milk on the wall! Ninety-eight bottles of milk!" They sang.

"You take one down, pass it around!" Everyone joined in. "Ninety-seven bottles of milk on the wall!"

Suddenly, the kids stopped at once with forlorn faces. Daisuke looked at his team. "We're all thinking the same thing, aren't we?"

"We need food." Josh told them. "That way we can get our Digimon to digivolve if we need to."

"I can't believe we have to climb a huge mountain with no food." Makoto complained. "We'll die."

"No we won't." Josh told him.

"I smell berries!" Tanemon sniffed the air.

"Yay!" Motimon cheered.

Josh sighed. "I'm more of a meat fan," he smiled again, "but as long as we get something, I'm grateful!"

"We have to take what we can get." Connor told him. "When our parents were here, they didn't complain."

Makoto snickered. "You don't know my mom."

"She complains like a rammcat!" Hitomi laughed.

"Sure. Okay." Daisuke replied, not knowing what that meant. "You Digimon get the berries while we...sit here."

"Sounds like a plan!" Tanemon jumped off of Makoto's head and ran towards the trees.

()()

The old Kamiya apartment was pretty quiet. Yuuko Kamiya sat down on her old couch with a comfortable wrap around her shoulders. "You children keep me young, you know." She told Tai and Kari who visited that day. "I know you're scared for your children but you'll think of something."

"You think so?" Tai asked.

"I know so." She said. "I know because they're your kids and my grandkids. They have plenty of survival skills because of us."

Kari raised an eyebrow. "Us?"

She nodded. "Mhm."

"Don't tell me you went to the Digital World!" Tai joked.

Yuuko chuckled. "Well, I didn't go there." She looked up in a reminiscing fashion. "I was very young at the time. Young and restless."

Tai and Kari leaned in to get a good listen. Their mother shared a lot, but never much of what happened before Tai was born. This was very interesting to them.

"I used to be a very rebellious teenager. I hated rules." She laughed. "You won't believe how many things I spray painted, how many things I stole, hearts I broke… But I knew why I acted up. I wasn't happy. I wasn't happy at all.

"I was always put under pressure of being perfect. I was so good in elementary school and teased in middle school because of it. By the time I was in high school, I was tired of it. I wanted to be free. So I went crazy. Then I ran away." She said "I finally found the courage to run away."

Tai was on the edge of his seat. "What did you do? Where did you go?"

Yuuko thought for a second. "Well, let's see… I traveled from Odaiba all the way down to…Kyoto."

The two gasped. "All the way down there?" Kari asked. "On foot?"

Yuuko nodded. "The only reason I went so far was because I met someone very special."

Kari and Tai smiled at each other. "Must've been Dad." They both answered.

"Oh no. It wasn't your father."

"Then who?" Tai asked.

She smiled. "Daichi Motomiya."

They gasped. "Davis's father?" Tai asked.

"Is that really who he is? I didn't even notice. He changed so much!" She continued. "Anyway, he was running away too. We met at Nagano where I was about to turn back, but I didn't. He offered to be my traveling partner and I agreed. We went all the way to Kyoto, drinking and partying at random places. We could've gotten ourselves killed, but we managed to survive."

"What happened at Kyoto?" Kari asked.

"Well…" She thought. "Daichi decided to go back home after meeting someone special."

"Davis's mom?" Tai asked.

"No." She answered. "Someone else that'll break his heart later. But I met your father. Susumu was a very nice man. He really knew how to dance! He even snuck me alcohol and cigarettes. I didn't smoke, but I tried it a few times while he did. He was like a chimney. Then we would go back to his place and…mess around. Or was it a back alley?"

"I was conceived at a back alley?" Tai asked in embarrassment.

Yuuko shook her head. "No, I don't think so. It's hard to tell. It was either that or probably in the back of a club." Tai blushed as she continued. "Don't worry. I did the same with Daichi and other guys."

Kari went wide eyed as Tai said "I think I'm going to be sick! Am I Davis's half-brother?"

"No you're not! You have your father's thick hair!" She laughed. "Come to think of it, he looked just like you did when you were a teenager. That wild hair was everywhere and it really was…! Anyway, I met him there and I celebrated my sixteen birthday with him. But then he told me that I should go home."

"Did you?" Kari asked.

Yuuko shook her head. "I couldn't. I was sick."

"Too many drinks?" Tai joked.

She winked. "That's what I thought at first but it wasn't that."

"Duh." Kari told her brother. "She was pregnant with you."

"Yes." She nodded. "I stayed with him for a few days. His parents didn't mind at all. They were glad to be grandparents. The only thing they didn't approve of was my age and that I didn't finish high school. Susumu was already eighteen, so he was already considered an adult." A tear fell down her cheek that still didn't have a wrinkle. "Later, he took me home through the subway. And the rest didn't matter.

"I did get into trouble, but I was okay. You came out safely, and that's all that mattered to me. I lost my friends, but I knew I'd get new ones. As you grew up, Tai, you became my best friend."

"What about Dad?" Tai asked.

"He bought an apartment for us to live and be happy. But he'd work so often, all I had was my baby boy." She smiled as another tear fell. "You set me straight. I actually started acting like an adult. Once Tai was two, I told him that he would have a baby brother or sister. He was so excited." She stopped as more tears started to fall. "That was one of the happiest times of my life. It was so light and innocent. It was so beautiful…

"Tai and Kari, you two are my greatest friends. And I can share anything with you. And I trust you." She smiled. "You grew up to be something special. I knew by the day you were born, Tai, that my life will change. You gave me courage while Kari gave me light."

By now both women were in tears while Tai sat still. "Mom, I'm honored…" Something clicked. Tai's eyes widened.

_You gave me courage while Kari gave me light._

_The power of the crests…_ Tai thought. Then he said "I know how to get our kids out."

* * *

Trivia: I always thought Yuuko Kamiya was the youngest out of the Digi-moms.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: Were you shocked by Yuuko's story?

* * *

Chapter 5

Shoji lied on the ground with Tsunomon right beside him. They gazed up at the stars with tears in their eyes. "I miss my dad." Shoji whimpered.

"I miss him too." Tsunomon said. "We need to defeat this guy so we can go home."

"Don't worry." Kim told him. "We'll defeat him and get back. In the meantime, we have to focus on what we have to do now."

"Get to the top of the mountain?" Shoji asked.

"Without starving to death?" Tsunomon asked.

"Yes." Kim answered. "Right, Yokomon?"

"Right." She smiled.

"Are we there yet?" Shoji asked.

"Not yet." Sam said. He looked up from the rocky flat ground they were on. "We still have another mile to walk."

Eriko turned over. "How did you calculate that?"

"It's just an estimate. It looks like a mile."

She shrugged and stood up. "My back hurts. Can we find somewhere else to sleep?"

Mel stood up. "I agree. This can't be a safe place to sleep in case any monsters show up."

"Maybe you're right." Aika said. "Let's just power through to the top of the mountain. Maybe then we can find or make a cave."

"Sounds like a plan!" Poromon bounced.

"Let's go!" Aika smiled and led her group. Onward to victory!

Meanwhile, Daisuke's team came across something unbelievable. "What's this…?" He asked his group. Connor quickly pulled out his camera.

"It's…" Hitomi started as the kids stared in shock at the huge building in front of them. "It's a mansion."

"This can't be real, can it?" Josh asked.

Makoto crossed his arms. "There's no way I'm spending the night in that dump." The mansion did look broken down. There were broken windows, mold in the bricks, some of them were even missing. "It looks like it hasn't been touched in years."

"Oh, Makoto." Tanemon shook her head.

"Hey, guys!" Connor called from behind. "Look at this!"

"What is it?" Daisuke asked as he and the other followed.

Tokomon stood by what seemed to be a huge mirror on the other side of the rundown mansion. He watched his reflection as he dance around. "Would you look at that?!" Daisuke exclaimed. "A mirror?"

"This is illogical." Hitomi said. "What is a mirror doing in the middle of nowhere? What's holding it up?"

Yukio yawned. "Where are we going to sleep? Koromon's tired."

"I guess we have to go into the mansion." Josh said.

Connor nodded, making his way back inside. It was dark inside with no hope for light. Not even the light switch worked the way it should. Connor kept flicking it, but it didn't work. Yukio came running in with Koromon in his arms seconds later. "Look at this place, Koromon!"

"Look how big!" Koromon shouted, the echo bouncing back at them.

"Do you think we'll get internet access?" Hitomi asked Makoto.

He shook his head. "I doubt it." By the look on his face, his sister could tell he was upset. "I can't believe we're sleeping on the ground."

"Don't whine like a little girl!" Daisuke commanded. "I mean, it could be worse. You can be dead."

"Fine." Makoto lied down next to Hitomi.

Yukio and Koromon ran down the stairs. "There are beds upstairs!" They both shouted.

"You have to be careful." Josh told them. "They can't be stable."

Salamon came rushing down and bounced on Josh's lap. "They are! I bounced on all of them!"

"Me too!" Yukio exclaimed.

"Have they been properly washed?" Makoto asked. "I've been through the experience of a cheap motel once, and I'm not doing that again!"

"I guess there's nothing wrong with taking a look." Hitomi stated. "I have come to the conclusion that…"

"Let's do it!" Daisuke exclaimed as everyone headed up the stairs with the exception of Josh and Connor.

The two of them continued to look around the first floor. Connor turned his camera off and followed Josh to the front door. He didn't say anything. "Is something wrong?" Connor asked him.

He shook his head.

"Josh…" Salamon quietly came down the stairs. "Are you okay?"

He nodded.

"Are you sure?" Connor asked.

Josh sighed and shook his head, sitting down by the door's remains. "I feel…funny."

Salamon snuggled into his lap. "Are you getting sick again?"

"No, I feel…like something's coming."

Connor sat next to him. "Like what?"

He shrugged. "Something bad." Josh told them. "I feel something bad coming."

"Me too." He looked at the horizon. Everything was dark. Really dark. "I wonder what it is."

Josh looked to the ground. He was feeling more than evil coming. There was another bad feeling within him. It might as well be evil but honestly, it felt good to him. The only problem was that he couldn't come out and tell anyone. "What will you do when this is all over?"

He shrugged. "Live." Connor smiled. "I'll live. I can do anything. What about you?"

"I'll live too." Josh giggled. "And I'll hit the showers and eat."

Connor smiled at him and Josh did the same until he sighed and fell into a fit of tears. "Hey." Connor wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "What's wrong? Please, tell me."

Josh wiped his tears but they kept falling. "I...don't know. I can't..."

"You promised you would."

Josh shook his head. "No. I meant I can't. I can't do this."

"Yes, you can. We all can. Our parents did it when they were young. And they didn't panic or cry. You can too."

Josh took a deep breath. "How do you know? They probably did when no one was looking. Just like I'm doing now but with you." He wiped his tears. "It's not just me I'm worried about. I'm scared for Yukio, my parents, you... I can tell my mom is scared for us. I don't want that to affect the baby."

Connor, at that point, battled too keep his focus. He was stuck on the fact that he was scared for him. He actually cared about him. Connor blinked away the thought. "What baby?" He changed the subject.

"Mom's expecting. I'm gonna be a big brother!" He said proudly.

But Connor couldn't get his mind off it. He had to ask "Are you really scared for me? Why?"

Josh nodded. "I want you to be safe. Because I..."

"Josh! Connor!" Yukio shouted from the banister. "We have to go to bed! Daisuke said so!"

"We're coming." Josh stood up. "You don't have to yell you know."

"Oh." Yukio blushed. "Sorry, everybody."

As Josh headed back, Connor stopped him by putting his hand on his shoulder. "It's okay to be afraid, Josh. But remember that we'll always stick together."

Josh wrapped his arm around his shoulders and Connor did the same. "You know, you're my best friend."

Connor smiled. "And you're mine!"

()()

"Look, Aika!" Sam called to his sister. Unlike the other group, they just made it up the mountain.

Aika climbed up and saw a rundown mansion with missing bricks, broken windows, and cobwebs. It was definitely abandoned. "Do you think someone lives there?"

"Look at it." Kim crossed her arms. "Why would someone live there? I say we go for it!"

The kids happily ran to the front door only to find it locked. Aika tried to open it, but it was no use. "This can't be happening!" She cried.

"Maybe there's a back door." Mel said.

"But it doesn't make sense." Sam pondered as the group headed towards the back. "Why would someone lock an abandoned mansion?"

"Who cares?" Aika asked. "Soft beds here we come!"

"Hopefully it wouldn't be too dusty." Mel said, adjusting his glasses. "I have allergies."

Eriko giggled and squeezed his hand as they approached… "Is that a giant mirror?" She asked.

"Looks like it." Mel said. "Tell me I'm dreaming!"

"How can you be dreaming? We all see it." Kim stated, looking into it.

Aika sighed. "Great. I inherited Mom's split ends."

"Mom said we caused those split ends." Sam told her. "Remember? We kept eating her hair."

Aika blushed as the others looked at them with confusion. "We were babies."

Shoji looked at himself for a while. Then he and Tsunomon got a closer look until they heard something coming from the other side. It was a small grinding noise it seemed like. "What's that?" Tsunomon asked.

"I don't know." Shoji said.

"Tackle!" Tsunomon sprang out of his arms and smashed against the mirror.

Kim quickly whirled around and gave her little brother a death glare. "Shoji! What are you doing?"

"We hear something." Her little brother pointed to the mirror.

"Bubble Blow!" Yokomon attacked the mirror with dozens of pink bubbles.

"Pinecone!" Minomon threw a hard pine-cone shaped object at the mirror. Finally, it cracked. The crack grew until a small chunk of mirror fell and broke. The ticking and grinding noise was a little more audible for the kids.

"What the…" Kim asked as she got closer.

Eriko took a closer look inside the small hole they made. It was dark, but she could see a large black gear being held to some sort of apparatus by a black hex nut. "Break some more." She commanded. "There's something behind it."

"Let me help." Kim ran to it and kicked it. "Come on, everyone!"

The kids nodded to themselves before charging at the mirror with full force. The kids and Digimon threw all of their weight several times until glass started to shatter bit by bit. The black gear Eriko saw was rotating with another black gear held by a black hex nut. What made them rotate was a large dark ring acting as a conveyor belt. The contraption was held in a room or a box if you will. It was big enough, however, to be a small room.

Meanwhile, Josh and Connor heard the pounding on the other side of their mirror. "What's that?" Josh asked as Connor took out his camera.

"Whatever it was, it stopped." Connor told him.

"Hello?" Josh called. "Is someone on the other side?"

"Josh?" Someone called back. "Is that you?"

Josh and Connor looked at each other and back at the mirror. They could only see their reflection. "It sounded like Kim." Connor said. Then he shouted "Is that you, Kim?"

"Yeah!" Kim called.

"Connor?" Sam called.

"Where are you?" Josh asked. The two headed towards the mirror and took a listen. They both heard the ticking and grinding.

Sam knocked on the wall where Connor's ear was. "I'm right here on the other side of this wall." He told them.

"You mean mirror." Josh told him.

"Knock it down." Aika told them. "You have to see this."

Josh nodded to Salamon who bounced with joy. "Petty Punch!" She attacked the mirror with many powerful punches.

"I'll go get the others." Josh told Connor as he ran off.

"Right." Connor replied. "Go, Tokomon!"

"Bubble Blow!" Tokomon shot powerful bubbles as Connor punched the glass. Minutes later, everyone came by and started smashing. Hit after hit, the mirror started to chip away. A shatter here, a crack there, until the whole thing gave in. The mirror fell like a waterfall, everyone ducked for cover. The whole DigiDestined team was reunited just as easily.

"What is that?" Daisuke asked, referring to the gears, ring, and nuts.

"Maybe this is what's causing this whole thing." Hitomi suggested. "But that doesn't explain why the black hex nuts are going about, what dispenses them, or how we're on the same mountain."

"It's obviously the mirrors." Eriko said as Makoto picked up a piece. "We thought we were on different mountains but somehow we're on one big mountain."

"But that would be impossible unless there is a huge mirror going along the side." Hitomi pointed out. With that, the kids looked over to the side and saw a huge mirror. "Okay, so that does explain it. But why would there be a mirror to separate the mountains?"

Sam thought for a second. "Is it possible that this mirror is meant to hide something? That would explain why this mirror block is here. The person or Digimon responsible for these black hex nuts wanted to hide this apparatus from people like us who need to tear it down."

"That's right." Eriko said. "So our enemy…"

"…is closer than we think." Daisuke finished.

"My theory exactly." Hitomi said. "Now, noting the mirrors and seeing that there's an abnormal piece of machinery here, it's safe to assume that the Digimon, being singular or plural, will meet here as the rendezvous point. Does that sound plausible, Eriko?" Even if they've known each other for a short time, Hitomi can always rely on Eriko for a great answer.

"I'm one hundred percent sure that's correct." She smiled.

"So the enemy is close." Daisuke said. "They're coming."

The two girls nodded.

"Well, in the meantime," Daisuke smiled at the winding gears, "let's destroy this! Come on, everybody! Let's do it! Digivolve!"

Digivices wailed as they gave the in-training Digimon the power to evolve to their rookie forms. They grew in size and power until it stopped. "V-headbutt!" The newly evolved Veemon charged after one of the gears. Before the others can join in, the rotation stopped all together.

The kids gasped as they stared in wonder, waiting for one of the smarties (Hitomi, Eriko, or Sam) would explain. But they didn't say a word. "What happened?" Mel finally spoke up.

Suddenly, things started to shake. The ground started to get warmer under the Digimon's feet, making them hop around until the kids felt it under their shoes. The ground got hotter as the rumbling got more violent.

"Let's get out of here!" Daisuke yelled over the screaming kids and Digimon. But before they could move, the gears, nuts, and ring started to melt along with the remains of the mirror and all of its pieces save for the one still in Makoto's hand.

An evil cackle could be heard as flames came up. _This is it,_ Daisuke thought, _our enemy._

The laughter got louder and louder as the flames got bigger. With a dark voice it said "And then evil shows his face!"

* * *

Trivia: I split the group up because working with 12 characters began to be difficult. But then I brought them back together because I didn't like switching from group to group. What do you think? Did it somehow take away from the story or anything?

A/N: I appreciate your reviews! I need to know if I'm doing a good job so far!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: Who did you think the villain would be? Were you right?

* * *

Chapter 6

Tai stood alongside his friends as they circled around Izzy's laptop. "I'm not completely confident with this method, but we have to try something." He held out his hands so Matt (to his right) and Kari (to his left) can hold them.

"Are we praying for them to come out?" Matt asked. "Sora and I already tried that at dinner."

"Me too." Cody said.

"No, we're not going to pray… Although, it would be a good idea." He shook his head. "But I have a different idea."

"I'm all ears." Davis told him. "Let's do this."

"Okay, everyone hold hands." They did what they were told. Yolei had to set little Keanu on the couch. "A few years before the new generation got their digivices, we had to go to the Digital World to give up the power of our crests to help the world recover from darkness…or some other nonsense. I have a feeling that the crests are still within us."

"You mean, they're, like, in our blood?" Sora asked.

"I've had so many blood tests done; I'll be surprised if I have any Crest of Reliability blood in me." Joe commented. "Wait…that didn't make sense."

"Anyway, I got the idea from a story my mom told. She told Kari and me that her pregnancy with me gave her courage while Kari's gave her light. That means we've had the power of the crests all along."

"So why are we still holding hands?" Ken asked.

"That's what I'm going to explain. You see, if we focus our energy, we can reactivate those crests and they can open the gate." Tai explained.

"But, Tai," Davis spoke up, "Cody, Yolei, and I never got those crests you're talking about."

Tai gave him a smile. "I thought of that. You three are still DigiDestined. That means, there's some kind of special trait in you. That's why you're here. The answer might even lie in the combination of the two traits." Davis, Cody, and Yolei looked at each other and nodded. "Okay, team," Tai smiled to himself. It's been a long time since he led his own little group to victory. "Let's concentrate."

All twelve of them squeezed their hands as they tried to bring out their crests. The power within them actually started to rise. Small traces of light in different colors started to grow in their hearts.

"That's it..." Tai whispered. "Feel it. Feel who you are. Friendship, Knowledge, Reliability... Feel it inside." The lights grew brighter. Then all at once, the lights centered towards the computer.

"Did it work?" Kari asked as everyone opened their eyes and let go of each other's hands.

T.K. took out his digivice and tried opening the gate up. Once, twice… "No." He shook his head.

"Then what did it do?" Cody asked. They all feared the worst, thinking it got into the huge massive power got into the hands of the enemy. But the crests only worked for good instead of the evil. However, the parents were still left to worry.

Meanwhile, the kids looked up at the rainbow of lights fly into the air. It survived until it hit the middle of the sky and scattered into all sorts of directions. A green light went unnoticed as it hit Makoto's pocket. Just in time, the flames rose to reveal their ultimate enemy.

"It's… It's…" Veemon could barely say.

"It's Meramon!" The Digimon jumped in front of the kids, exposing his fiery body to the new DigiDestined's eyes. "And you kids aren't going anywhere!"

"Stay behind us, kids." Agumon told them. The DigiDestined kept their distance and huddled together.

"Koromon… I mean… Agumon," Yukio said, "are you sure you can do it? You're big now, but can you beat that guy up?"

He nodded. "You have to have faith. I may not be as strong as Dad's Agumon but I can still try."

"Go for it!" He gave him a high five before running behind his other friends.

Agumon stood up tall and took in a deep breath. "Pepper Breath!" He shouted, hitting him with fire. Obviously, that didn't work too greatly.

Meramon laughed. "I'm rubber, you're glue! Whatever you throw at me, bounces off of me and sticks to you!" He taunted. "Roaring Fire!" And, like he said, he threw a fireball back at him via his fists.

"Who even says that anymore?" Aika asked. "Go, Hawkmon!"

"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon threw his feather ornament at the flaming Digimon, but it only game back flaming and causing no damage. He rapidly slapped at the ornament to put out the fire as he ran in circles yelling "Hot! Hot! Hot!"

"Okay, this isn't working." Aika said. "We need a plan."

Veemon looked at Daisuke with sorrow. "I can't use my V-headbutt attack or I'll get burned." He said.

"I can't touch him either." Palmon sulked.

"Sticky Net!" Wormmon spat out a web, completely covering Meramon and trapping him. "Got him! Now, let's attack!"

But before they could do anything, Meramon rebuilt his fire and melted the web. "You're going to have to do better than that!" He got his hands ready for another attack.

"Let's get out of here!" Mel shouted.

"Where do we go? We're on the top of a mountain!" Makoto shouted back.

The kids took a step back every step Meramon took forward. Everyone had the same question on their mind. What do we do? There's no way to touch Meramon, there's no way they can attack him. Yukio eventually felt the edge. "Hey, everybody! Quit pushing!" He yelled.

Kim and Josh felt the edge and were also on the verge of slipping. "Hold it!" They shouted, but the others didn't listen. They were too fearful. Suddenly, they all slipped and started falling.

"Oh, great! I pushed them down the mountain." Meramon said.

"Come on, Digimon!" Agumon said. "Let's go help them out!"

"Yeah!" Veemon cheered. "Let's do it!"

Palmon stood at the edge. "Poison Ivy!" She stretched her vines around the kids the best she could, but the weight made her slide. She planted her roots into the ground but she still had trouble keeping up. "A little help here?"

"Right!" Tentomon said as everyone gave their support by holding on. But with the weight of the kids and the distance between them, the Digimon fell as well.

"You can't get away from me that easily!" Meramon shouted going after them.

The road downward was harsh as they dodged tree branches and rocks. Gomamon, then, had an idea. "Marching Fishes!" He called as fishes from the nearby river jumped and made a bed out of their bodies. The kids landed softly with a small bounce.

"Great thinking, Gomamon." Mel smiled at him.

The bed of fishes landed in the river and slowly guided them along. No one knew where the river would lead them, but they were glad to see Meramon farther and farther into the distance. They cheered as his picture got smaller and smaller. But their laughter and joy ended when they saw him following on the river side.

"We have to get this moving." Daisuke said.

"Allow me!" Patamon sucked in a bunch of air before heading to the end of the boat. "Boom Bubble!" He exhaled a large bubble that gave them a temporary speed boost. He did it again and again while the boat went faster.

"We're losing him!" Connor cheered. "Good job, Patamon!"

"Thanks, Connor." Patamon said. "Can I stop now? I'm tired." He plopped onto his belly.

"Of course." He zoomed his camera in on Patamon resting. "How come you didn't Digivolve back to Tokomon?"

"We can't afford to turn back to our In-Training forms." Armadillomon said.

"He's right." Gabumon said. "We have to protect you guys."

"Just like your parents' Digimon would do for them." Gatomon added.

Connor pointed the camera to Hitomi who spoke up. "You guys really look up to those Digimon, don't you?"

They all nodded. "We were In-Training when we met them." Tentomon explained. "I guess you can say we grew up together."

"Well, except for me, Hawkmon, and Armadillomon." Veemon said. "But we knew them."

Kim smiled. "We're lucky kids to have you to protect us."

Biyomon nodded and nuzzled her leg.

Daisuke looked around at the other kids and their Digimon before turning back at Meramon who was nowhere to be seen. "So what's next for us?" He asked. "We have to defeat that guy if we want to go home."

"This is ridiculous." Kim said. "If we had a DigiPort thing, shouldn't we be able to open it and get out?"

Hitomi shook her head. "I tried it. It didn't work."

Makoto pulled the mirror piece out of his pocket and started checking his hair. "Well, it looks like the Digital World is keeping us hostage."

"Where did you get that?" Daisuke asked. "Is that the mirror we broke?"

He looked at his teeth next as he said "Yes."

"And you put it in your pocket?"

"That's right." He smiled to himself a cool guy smile.

"Are you dumb? You could've killed yourself! We were falling down a mountain and you could've stabbed yourself or someone else with that." Daisuke raised his voice.

"Chill out or Meramon will here you. Now, if we were falling down the mountain, it wouldn't matter if I stabbed myself or someone else because we'd already would've fallen to our death."

"So why did you keep it?" Hitomi asked. "Are you keeping it as a souvenir?"

He shook his head. "I need to see what I'm looking like."

"No, you don't." Daisuke fought his urge to yell. "We could die. Now's not the time to look at your hair."

"We're going to die?" Yukio and Shoji asked, getting teary eyed.

"No, we're not." Kim told both of them. "Don't worry. Daisuke's just being dramatic."

Josh looked around the horizon in boredom. There was nothing but walls of trees and water. That is until he saw something interesting. He tapped on Connor's shoulder and pointed in that direction so he would point his camera. "What do you think that is?"

"It looks like…docks?" He zoomed in.

"That means there's a shipping channel." Aika said. "That means there's a city nearby!"

"Let's land!" Mel cheered.

The DigiDestined pulled up to the pier and got off of the fishes. Gomamon thanked them as they swam away. Safely on land, the kids looked around at the small village. It was more like a ghost town with plenty of lanterns about. "It looks like a party just ended." Sam commented.

"Usually this place has a lot of Digimon." Palmon said. "Where is everyone?"

"Maybe they're sleeping." Gabumon said.

Daisuke looked at his Digivice. "Well, it is late. And we didn't get any sleep ourselves."

"So are we sleeping here?" Makoto asked.

"Is it safe?" Mel asked.

Daisuke rolled his eyes at Makoto's lack of cooperation and Mel's excessive worrying. "Let's just look around."

The DigiDestined traveled down the long walkway in the center of the small town. On the sides sat little huts that had lanterns hanging on each top corner. So far, there was no sign of life. Not a Digimon, not even a plant. It was all dry. "There's nothing really here to look at." Veemon commented.

"Look over there!" Biyomon exclaimed. Everyone turned around to see a light coming their way. It was a big bright one coming at a fast pace.

"Oh no!" Kim said. "It has to be Meramon!"

"Run!" Daisuke commanded. Everyone ran into the nearest hut on the left, squishing each other. "Not in the same place! Spread out!"

The kids scattered about with their Digimon and hid just in time for Meramon to show up. "Come out, come out, wherever you are." He said in a dark voice as he walked down the main walkway.

Yukio and Agumon shook with fear as Meramon walked by their hut. "That was scary." He told his Digimon.

Agumon nodded. "I wish I had something to eat. I'm starving."

Yukio looked around. "When Dad said a Digimon's a lot of responsibility, he wasn't joking!" Then, he spotted a woven basket with a matching lid sitting in the corner. "What's in there?"

Agumon shrugged. "Let's find out." They opened the basket and noticed that it was full of bread. "Food!"

"Shh!" Yukio hissed. "Don't let him hear you. Just eat."

He sniffed them before chowing down. Yukio took one for himself and took a bite. Luckily, it was fresh! Once they were all gone, Agumon burped with satisfaction. "I think I'm full."

"Good." He smiled. "Your rumbling stomach could've given us away!"

"Not only that! But I think I have my power back! Maybe even more!"

"More?" Yukio poked his head out to see Meramon looking _straight at him!_ He gasped as he slammed his body inside the hut. "Oh no. He saw us." Tears fell down his cheeks as he heard the Digimon coming closer. "We're in so much trouble." He hugged Agumon as hard as he can.

Agumon hugged back in fear as the hut started to burn. Flames crept up as Meramon said "I found you." Then, he grabbed the hut and threw it onto the ground where the flames consumed it. "Now, to get rid of you once and for all!" He started forming fireballs in his hands as he laughed an evil laugh.

"No!" Yukio screamed.

Just then, his digivice started screaming and wailing as it vibrated. Agumon pushed him aside as he stood in front. "Agumon digivolve to…" He started growing and changing in shape. The power was overwhelming.

"He's…digivolving…" Yukio said.

Some of the other kids looked for themselves. Josh boldly ran to his younger cousin as Connor pulled out his camera. "Are you okay?" Josh asked him.

"He's…digivolving…" was all he could say."

"…Greymon!" The newly evolved Greymon roared with power.

Josh wrapped his arms around Yukio to protect him, but the younger boy ended up squirming free, yelling "Go Greymon!"

Gatomon scurried to their side. "That's Agumon's Champion form, Greymon." She explained.

"You're a champion, too, aren't you?" Josh asked her.

She nodded. "This is as far as I go. And my Lightning Paw won't be any help."

"But I'm here." Greymon said. "I'll get this guy."

"Oh you think?" Meramon asked. "Roaring Fire!"

Greymon fell back after the fireball to the chest, but he wasn't out! "Nova Blast!" He threw an even bigger fire ball at him. Meramon fell to his knees. "Nova Blast!"

"Roaring Fire!" Meramon threw more.

"This isn't working." Yukio said. "We need more power!"

"But the other Digimon are hungry." Gatomon told them. "We need to get them food so they can digivolve too."

Daisuke came out of his hut. "Hey, Meramon!" He yelled.

"Veemon digivolve to…" Veemon grew as well and became "…ExVeemon!"

"Let's do it!" He pumped his fist in the air.

"Vee-Laser!" ExVeemon shouted, throwing his energy at Meramon.

"Two against one? That's hardly fair." Meramon said. "Luckily for me, I have a plan!" He pointed towards the sky. "My buddy, Devimon, gave me this idea!"

"What's he talking about?" Daisuke asked.

And with that, four other black hex nuts floated by and shot right into Meramon's body. He began to grow with the same evil laugh, gaining all sorts of power.

Gatomon looked at Josh and Yukio. "We have to find food for the others. They see their partners in danger and the only way they can help is to get some energy."

Meramon laughed as he sent another fireball attack at all the huts the kids hid at. "Let's go." Josh said, gripping Yukio's hand. "Try to keep up."

"No." Yukio tried to get his hand free, but Josh's grip was too tight. "I'm not leaving Greymon. He needs me."

Josh looked at Yukio and back at Gatomon. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

Eriko and Armadillomon rushed out as soon as their hut collapsed. "Where are all the Digimon?" Eriko asked Armadillomon.

"Who knows?" He asked. "We have to get out of here." The two ran all the way to another hut where they found another woven basket of bread. "Food! Now I can eat this and digivolve!"

"Is that all it takes?" She asked.

"Well, that and your faith in me, Eriko."

She stood there, staring at her Digimon and back at Meramon who just threw fireballs at ExVeemon and Greymon.

"You do have faith, don't you?"

She gulped. "But what if it's not enough?"

"Eriko," Armadillomon stomped his foot for her attention, "you have to have confidence that, with my help, we can beat them."

She looked back at both of them and at Armadillomon. He had a point. Now that Meramon was stronger, we needed more reinforcement. "Go, Armadillomon!"

"Save some for us!" Mel called as he and Gomamon made their way. "We need all the help we can get."

"Oh, Mel!" Eriko hugged him.

"Come on, guys! Eat!" Mel commanded as he kept Eriko out of harm's way.

"That's it! I feel it!" Gomamon cheered.

"Me too!" Armadillomon exclaimed.

"Gomamon digivolve to…"

"Armadillomon digivolve to…"

"Ikkakumon!"

"Ankylomon!"

Meanwhile, Hitomi and Makoto began their search for food. "Where is everything?" Makoto asked in frustration.

"I wish I can just suck the nutrients from the ground, but there aren't any." Palmon pouted. "That's why all the plants wilted."

"There has to be some sort of market or restaurant somewhere." Hitomi said.

"Maybe there is." Tentomon said, looking around. "Unfortunately, I don't see any."

The small group ran into an alley to catch their breath. Makoto and Hitomi rested their bodies against a set of bricks. "Wait! There's a building!" Palmon chirped.

"Where?" Makoto asked.

"You're leaning on it!" Tentomon said. "Come on! They might have some food!" A door stood just mere feet from them.

"How lucky!" Hitomi smiled.

After the Digimon broke it down, they ran inside. Josh and Connor weren't too far behind as they searched multiple huts (even the burnt ones). "There has to be food somewhere." Connor said.

"All the fire and smoke are getting in the way of the scent of food." Patamon complained. "I can't track it down."

"Found some!" Josh said.

"Us too!" Aika cheered in the hut next to them.

"Hawkmon digivolve to…"

"Wormmon digivolve to…"

"Aquilamon!"

"Stingmon!"

"Good." Josh smiled. "That just leaves Gabumon and Biyomon."

"Last I checked, they were at that building." Aika pointed to the same building Hitomi and Makoto ran into.

And they were there. Kim and Shoji came out from underneath a table when they saw Hitomi and Makoto with Tentomon and Palmon.

"Makoto!" Kim ran to his side and held his hands. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, of course. How about you?" He looked down at the hands she held. Kim immediately took them back and blushed.

"We're fine. We were just about to find some food for our Digimon."

"What are you doing here?" Shoji asked.

"We're looking for food too." Hitomi answered. "What building is this anyway?" She looked around at all of the tables and noticed that there was a piano in the corner next to a huge stage. "If I were to guess, this is a dinner theater."

"Key word being dinner." Kim commented, looking at Biyomon with a smile.

"Yeah!" Biyomon cheered.

"Since the smoke hasn't reached inside yet," Gabumon said, "I can sniff out the food easily." He said. "This way."

They all followed Gabumon until they reached the pantry. "Bon appètit!" The kids said as the Digimon chowed down.

"Tentomon digivolve to…"

"Palmon digivolve to…"

"Gabumon digivolve to…"

"Biyomon digivolve to…"

"Kabuterimon!"

"Togemon!"

"Garurumon!"

"Birdramon!"

The four Champion leveled Digimon ran out of the building just in time for Josh, Connor, Aika, and Sam to see. "That's all of them!" Sam said.

"Now, let's fight them!" Josh said.

"Wait a minute." Connor said. "Tokomon still didn't digivolve." He gulped. "No, he has to digivolve first."

"There's not time." Aika said. "Let's go, Aquilamon!"

"Go, Stingmon!" Sam ran after his Digimon.

But Josh and Connor stayed behind. Patamon looked at Connor with fear in his eyes. "We can't…" Patamon started. "I can't…digivolve." His eyes started to well up. "I need to protect Connor, but I can't if I can't digivolve."

Connor started to get worried with his Digimon. "It'll be okay, Patamon."

"But the Darkness can win if I don't help." Patamon looked at the others.

More nuts came from the sky and into Meramon's body. "I can do this all day!"

Josh clenched his fists along with Gatomon. Connor watched the other Digimon get hit with fireballs. Greymon and ExVeemon stood up. "Nova Blast!"

By this point, Meramon was too big to be effected. He was huge. The newly evolved Champions looked like mice compared to him. "Now, let's fight!" Meramon grabbed Greymon and ExVeemon.

"Go!" Connor told Josh, pushing him out. "You have to help them!"

"What about you?"

Tears were coming down his cheeks nonstop. "Just go. I'll be fine. Our friends need all the help they can get."

"Okay." Josh nodded. "Come on, Gatomon!"

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon threw another bubble attack, but it was unnoticed by everyone in battle.

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon launched. But this only got himself a Greymon thrown at him. "Hey!"

"Are you okay?" Greymon asked.

"Fine. How about you?" Ikkakumon asked him.

"Burnt, but fine." He said.

But he wasn't the only one being thrown around. All of them were. Like rag dolls, they threw each other on Meramon just to get thrown right off.

"Don't give up!" Yukio yelled to the top of his lungs. Greymon hit the ground again but couldn't find the strength to get back up. "Greymon! Wake up! He's coming!"

Meramon got ready for another fireball attack.

"Greymon!"

"Yukio!" He turned around and saw his cousin running towards him. "Catch!" Like the football player he is, Josh chucked his lucky whistle. Yukio reached up but the whistle fell at his feet. "Learn to catch!"

Yukio picked up the shiny piece of metal and wiped it clean. Then, he took in a deep breath.

And blew.

His small five-year-old lungs got tighter and tighter as he blew as hard as he can. Once he couldn't blow anymore, he violently gasped for air. Yukio swallowed as nothing happened.

That is until Greymon got right back up. "Let's go!" They both cried.

Meanwhile, fire was being thrown everywhere. Patamon used his Boom Bubble attack to protect Connor from it. With every second of attack, the Digimon were running out of energy. Togemon collapsed next to Makoto. "I'm sorry." She said.

Kabuterimon fell by Hitomi. "We're not strong enough."

"Of course we are." Eriko said. "I have faith, Ankylomon! I swear I do!"

Ankylomon forced himself onto his feet. "We can't lose." But he quickly gave in and collapsed.

"No! Ankylomon!"

Sam looked at Aika as he started hyperventilating. "Aika…" He looked back at Stingmon who got thrown to the ground. "No, Stingmon!" Then it happened. Seeing the Digimon failing made Sam fall into another wave of darkness. His eyes began to haze over as he collapsed to the ground.

"Sam, please!" Aika said. "Don't do this now!"

Patamon looked at all of the other Digimon. "There has to be something I could do." He concentrated. Something within him felt as if it was unlocking. Something... He felt energy but not too much. "Maybe I'm not as strong as the others." He sulked.

"Of course you are." Connor raised his voice. "This is just like in Dad's book. His Patamon was a late bloomer and so are you. You just have to believe you can do it."

Patamon looked at him. There were determination in those eyes. "Okay!" He calmed down and steadied his breathing. "Come on!"

Meramon looked over at both of them. "I might as well pick them off one by one." He said. "Starting with the little one!"

"No!" Patamon yelled. He got on all fours in front of his partner and growled ferociously. "You won't hurt Connor. I won't let you."

Meramon got closer. The heat was uncomfortable now. Patamon continued to growl and look as terrifying as possible. But it wasn't working. He just got closer.

"No! Connor!" Patamon called out.

Connor screamed as Meramon stretched out a hand. It was too hot for him. But just when all hope seemed to be gone...

A miracle happened.

* * *

Trivia: I rewatched Digimon Adventure so many times to pull out some key moments and hint at them.

A/N: Sorry for those who've been waiting so long! College gets rough!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: What did you think of the fight so far?

* * *

Chapter 7

"Patamon digivolve to…" Connor watched in wonder as his digivice screeched. Mystical lights surged through the surroundings as Patamon changed his shape. His power continued to grow. "…Angemon!"

"Angemon?" Connor looked up at his newly evolved Champion Digimon. The beautiful angel stood tall against his enemy. Everyone gasped as they stared in awe.

"I'm not going to let a little digivolution deter me!" Meramon stood up to Angemon.

Connor ran over to Josh who was trying to nurse his Gatomon. "This is just like in my dad's book." He told him. Josh never read any of them so he just nodded. "We have to give energy to Angemon."

"Our energy?" Gatomon asked. Connor nodded.

"Let's do it." Daisuke said.

"Gladly." ExVeemon said.

All eleven of the Champion Digimon relaxed as their energy was given to their savior. Rays of light escaped their bodies, turning them back into their In-Training forms and causing Angemon to grow in size, matching Meramon. "You have brought too much terror to our fellow Digimon." He told him. "Meramon you're finished."

"No, I'm not." He said, drumming up another fireball. "The Powers of Darkness shall overcome! Fireball!"

Angemon swatted it away as if it were a fly. "The power and strength of the DigiDestined shall be your demise!" He drew back a fist as it became plated with gold. "Hand of Fate!" He yelled as he threw his fist into Meramon's chest, breaking through the flames.

"No!" Meramon yelled in pain. "Burning! Burning! _BURNING!_"

Angemon's fist pierced through the other side, punching out all of the black hex nuts and making them fall onto the ground and shatter. Meramon yelled as Angemon took his fist back. After putting all of his energy into the huge attack, Angemon fell to his knees.

"NOOOO!" Meramon collapsed onto his knees. All of his data started to slowly disintegrate into the air from the toes to his ankle and it continued to disappear. "DigiDestined, you are not safe! This is only the beginning! I'll be back and the Powers of Darkness _will_ overcome!"

"Angemon, stay strong." Connor told him. He read the pain his father felt. He would give anything to not experience it. "Please."

"For you." He said before he collapsed. Keeping his promise, he didn't share the same fate as Meramon. Instead, he reverted back to Tokomon.

Connor quietly stepped forward as the last of Meramon became particles of data. He knelt down to his friend and gently handled him in his arms. "Thank you." He whispered to his friend.

"We won!" Yukio cheered.

"That was so cool!" Shoji cheered.

Josh picked up Connor's camera which managed to capture everything. "Thank you, Tokomon." He told him, giving the camera back to its owner.

Tokomon blinked. "It was thanks to all of your help." He closed his eyes.

"Tokomon…" Connor said, hoping that his eyes would open again. But they didn't. "Thank you." Connor lied down next to him and did the same. In fact, they all collapsed onto the ground for a victory rest.

()()

"Meramon…failed?" A voice from deep into the darkness asked. It was from a woman and it came from a dark castle. No one was able to see where it came from because of the lack of lighting. "I should've figured. He's only a Champion." She scoffed. Tiny bells could be heard, indicating that she was adjusting herself in her seat.

"Do you want me to teach them a lesson?" Another female voice asked.

"No. I'm saving you for later."

"Yes, Goddess of Darkness."

"Good. Now, I want SkullSatamon."

Out of the shadows stepped SkullSatamon. He bowed down in front of the darkened throne and knelt down on one knee. "Yes, Goddess of Darkness?"

More jingling bells were heard. "The tags. The crests. Find them. Destroy them." She told him.

"Yes, ma'am."

"And for the love of all that is dark and unholy, _don't _end up like Meramon." She scoffed. "That was just embarrassing."

"If I may make a suggestion," SkullSatamon said.

"Go ahead."

"Why don't we bring him back? That way he'll be stronger than ever."

There was silence. "Oh, well, that's clever. Oh, that's real clever." She laughed. "I shall get a team on that immediately. Good work, SkullSatamon. I knew having you on my team wouldn't disappoint me. I wish I could say the same for Meramon."

"Thank you, Goddess of Darkness." SkullSatamon said.

"Now, off with you."

"Yes, m'lady." He stood up and flew out of the window.

"Man, I love him! But he could've used the door." She sighed. "In the meantime, come my pets!" And out came Tsukaimon and BlackGatomon. "Now, go find me NeoDevimon. I have a new job for him."

"Yes, Goddess of Darkness." They both said, before heading out the door.

()()

"Maybe, we can help." Tai's Digimon told him the next morning. Back in the Real World, Tai and the others were still hard at work.

"Yeah." Biyomon said. "We can give our energy to somehow open the gate."

Sora looked over at Tai. "Maybe we should give it a try." She told him. The others continued to sit around the computer while Cody tried his D3 again.

"Anything is better than sitting here." Tai agreed. "Okay, Agumon."

The Digimon sat around the computer and concentrated. However, the sudden burst of energy only crashed the laptop. Izzy stared with wide eyes as he saw the piece of machinery smoke.

"Well, that didn't work." Matt commented.

"M…My…" Izzy uttered. "M…M…My…"

"What's next?" Joe asked.

Izzy continued to stare in awe. Mimi stood up from the couch. "I can make snacks!"

"Let me help." Kari stood up.

"Great!" Veemon commented. "I'm starving!"

"Let's eat!" Agumon followed him into the kitchen.

Davis answered his cellphone after it rang, Yolei and Ken tried to get Keanu from eating her hair, and T.K. wrote a bunch of things down in a notebook. Everyone was preoccupied with something while Izzy was stunned at his broken laptop. "M…M…My laptop!" He finally yelled. "Oh, how I wish that didn't happen."

"Don't worry, honey." Mimi told him. "We'll get it fixed."

"I'll go with you." Tai said, picking up the pieces.

"Great." Izzy said with little enthusiasm.

Tai smiled. "That's the spirit! Kari, play hostess while I'm gone."

Kari watched as the two men left. Then she looked back at her guests. "Make yourself at home."

"Actually," Joe stood up. "I have to go home and check on Connie."

"Okay, Joe." She said. "Thanks for coming."

"I'll come back as soon as I can." He said before leaving.

Davis hung up his phone. "This is ridiculous. Why can't we get into DigiWorld?" His frustration got the best of him when he slammed his cellphone on the floor. "I have to know if they're okay."

"Davis, it's alright." Ken told him. He took his son away from Yolei and held him on his lap. "I know you're worried, but they'll be fine." He looked over to Kari and T.K. "Right?"

T.K. nodded. "Of course."

"No, we have to do something now!" Davis picked up his cellphone and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Ken asked.

"The school to use their computer." He said. "I know Tai couldn't figure something out, but maybe I can with some miracle."

"I'll come with you." Ken stood up.

"Take the baby with you. He needs fresh air." Yolei said.

"But we don't have time to put the car seat in my car." Davis told her.

"Then take ours." Yolei tossed the keys to him.

"Fine." He caught them.

Davis vigorously turned the ignition. Ken just slid in the passengers' side after buckling Keanu in and watched as he angrily got the car started and began to drive. The whole time, he was mumbling to himself. Then, his cellphone rang.

"What is it, Nick?" He answered. "Let me call you back." He hung up.

"Davis, I know you're worried…"

"Worried? Me?" He scoffed.

"Yes. I know you're worried, but you don't have to stress yourself about it."

Davis took a quick glance at Ken, knowing he was right, before giving a sigh. "That's just it, Ken. I'm always stressed. I'm surprised I don't look like an old man by now!"

Ken wouldn't even notice the stress he was under. Even now, Davis looked like the youngest. "How do you look so put together when, in reality, you're falling apart?"

He shrugged.

"Is the noodle cart business too much?"

"No." He shook his head. "It's Daisuke. He grew up without a mom and, for the most part, a dad. Veemon raised him." He sighed. "Because of me, Daisuke was very emotional and he had…some issues. I just got back into his life. What if he thinks I'm a bad parent now for leaving him in DigiWorld?"

Instead of feeling sorry for him, Ken smiled. "You really think you're a bad parent?" Davis nodded. "You're actually a very good one. You stopped your actions before the problem got too big to handle. How old is he now?"

"Fourteen." He sighed again. "He's almost a man and I feel like I missed his childhood. And if something happens to him…"

"Stop."

"What?"

"Stop the car!"

"What?" He stomped his foot on the brakes. "What is it, Ken? What's wrong?"

Ken smiled again. "You almost ran a stop sign."

Davis looked to his left and saw the stop sign. "Oh." He gave a nervous laugh before continuing to drive.

"But we're doing all that we can. You have to remember that."

Davis nodded as he pulled into the school parking lot.

"How are we going to get inside? There's no way they'll let us." Ken told him. "It's summer vacation."

Davis slung the diaper bag around his shoulder. "I have a plan." He told him when they entered the building.

The school secretary looked at them with a question mark on her forehead. "May I help you?" She asked.

"We need to get into the computer lab." He told her.

"The school is closed, sir." The secretary's Mushroomon said.

"Look, ma'am," Davis pulled out a card, "this is official Digital World business and we need access to your computer lab. This is an emergency and we are professionals."

"Okay, I'll let you in." The secretary said. "Just sign in our log book for our records."

"Oh, sure." He began signing.

"Is that bag full of cool gadgets?" She asked.

Davis looked at it and chuckled, nodding towards Keanu. "Naw, it's a diaper bag." After two minutes of signing in, the two were able to get into the lab.

"How did you do that?" Ken asked.

Davis smirked. "Tai left his diplomat I.D."

Both of them laughed as they got inside. Davis sat at their old computer while Ken bounced Keanu playfully next to him. The baby giggled uncontrollably as went up and down on Daddy's knee.

"You know," Davis turned around, "You can't really spell Keanu without Ken."

He lifted the baby up and back down. "You know, you're right." Keanu giggled as he landed onto the table. Then he started to spit up. "Uh oh!" Ken grabbed a small cloth from the diaper bag. "Baby made a mess! Yes, he did!" Davis watched with an eyebrow raised as Ken wiped the baby clean. "All clean!" He said. Keanu started to cry now. "Oh no. Baby's getting fussy." He picked him up and started rocking him. "Let it all out, Keanu." The baby cried louder. "Oh, I know! Oh, I know!" Ken said in a sympathetic baby voice.

Davis watched in admiration as Keanu started to calm down when Ken hugged him tighter and pat his bottom. "Who knew you were so good with babies?" He asked.

He shrugged with a smile. "I guess it's just instinct I had in me this whole time."

Davis watched as Keanu sucked his thumb and looked up at Ken with admiration. He loves his daddy! Seeing this made him feel…jealous. "You know, Kari will have a baby too."

"Oh, right." Ken said. "I remember Yolei telling me."

He nodded. "She has a husband that loves her and you have a wife that loves you."

"Davis…" Davis turned towards the computer and took his digivice out of his pocket.

"Don't do that, Ken. You know I hate that." By that, he meant he hated when Ken didn't know what to say so he just said his name. He had plenty of sympathy for him and he could tell by that one word. He was just going to make him feel even worse.

"But, Davis…" He stopped to think of something. "I'm your friend. I want you to tell me the problem. Are you ready to date again?"

Davis sighed. "I don't know." He told him. "I still have a lot of feelings."

"Do you want to talk about them?" Ken asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No!" Davis rolled his eyes. "Men don't talk about feelings." He smiled. "I would rather show them." With that, Davis leaned in to Ken and gave him a gentle kiss on his lips. Keanu reached up and put his fingers on Davis's cheek.

When they pulled away, Ken just stared for a minute. He wasn't staring at anything particular; just staring. "You still love me." He said, putting Keanu on the floor.

Davis swallowed before nodding. "Look, it's complicated… Let's just forget it and try this thing."

Ken grabbed him by the collar with both hands and pulled him close. He had anger in his eyes, but he knew he would regret his actions. He kissed him back. Davis accepted it and was willing to make things a little more passionate, but Ken pulled away. "I'm married." He told him.

"Sorry." Davis said. Then he laughed to himself. "This is why I don't try this with Kari. Her husband is huge!"

Ken shook his head and looked away. "Davis, it's going to be okay. You'll meet someone else. You don't have to keep crawling back."

Davis stood up with clenched fists. "I'm not crawling back. It was just a feeling I had."

"I'm sorry, Davis, I…"

"You know, it's not fair! Everyone gets their own partner to spend their life with. The girl I once loved is married and having their second child, the only guy I'll ever love has three kids and is also happily married, and the other girl I finally had a chance with had her life ruined by me and now she's in heaven! I'm alone now. And now I'm ruining my son's life." He grabbed his D3 and tried to open the gate up. "And now he could possibly die without my help!"

"Davis, calm down." Ken commanded. "Please." Honestly, he's never seen his best friend so broken up. He was usually the one to heal the broken. Now, it was his turn. "I remember when we were younger. You practically scolded those kids for giving up, not having faith."

Davis looked over at Ken. "You're right."

"And you know he'll be safe. You know they'll all be safe."

"You're right."

"And I know you're capable to find someone else."

He smiled. "We just have to focus on our kids now."

"That's the spirit, Davis!"

"Yeah! Let's do this!"

* * *

Trivia: I have a hard time writing fight scenes. So if you can critique them, that'll be cool!

A/N: Please review and tell me some things I could work on.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: Keep reviewing! I can't stress that enough!

* * *

Chapter 8

Makoto opened his eyes just to see the burned down village. That's when all of the memories of last night came back to him. Meramon was defeated and Tanemon was safely sleeping next to him. He looked down at his leg which was giving him a lot of pain. He noticed that there was blood running down the side, coming from where his pants pocket. He sighed as he took out the mirror piece from his pocket. "Okay, so that wasn't my brightest idea." He said to himself. "Mel, wake up."

Mel opened his eyes and saw Makoto and his bloody leg. He smiled. "Someone should've listened to Daisuke."

"You're right. I should have." He took a look at his mirror as he fixed his hair. "But I didn't."

Mel grabbed his duffle bag and took out some bandages. "You know, you're going to have to start listening to him."

"Why should I? He almost got us killed." He said. "We fell down a mountain." He squinted his eyes. "Ew. There's bread in my teeth." He picked it with his fingernail. "Gross! There's dirt in my fingernails!"

"Shh!" Mel hissed. "Don't wake the others." He rolled his pant leg up to find the wounded area. "And he's your camp leader."

"That ended at camp."

"Makoto, we can't afford this right now." Mel started wrapping up his leg. "Daisuke's our friend. We need to stick together if we want to get out of here alive. Plus, my father always said listen to the guy with the goggles on his head."

Makoto smirked and made his way over to Daisuke who was still asleep. Carefully, he slipped his goggles off and put them on his head. "Now you have to listen to me! I'm the goggle head now!"

Mel chuckled. "In that case, we'll all die!"

Makoto laughed back. "We probably will." He put the goggle back in front of Daisuke's face.

"How does it feel? Are the bandages too tight?"

Makoto shook his head. "It's fine. Thanks." He sat down next to Tanemon and rolled his pant leg back down.

Sam woke up next and saw the other boys awake. "That was a crazy battle last night." He said.

"It was." Mel agreed.

"I was meaning to ask you, Sam." Makoto said. "What happened to you?"

Sam swallowed. "W…What do you mean? Nothing."

"You collapsed and you looked like you had a seizure." He answered. "Not to mention that weird hazy look to your eyes. It was like you were being possessed."

Sam gave a small smile that went away just as quickly. "I…It was nothing. I'm fine."

"Sam, you can tell us." Mel said. "I have Dad's whole doctors' office in my bag!"

Sam giggled. "That won't be necessary." He told him. "I was just scared. You see, I have these episodes where the dark ocean pulls me under. I thought they were finished, but I guess not."

"Oh, well…we're safe now." Makoto said. "There's no more Meramon!"

Hitomi woke up and saw her brother so happy. "Since Meramon's gone, can we go home now?"

"Mom?!' Daisuke shot up. "I guess it was a dream. Oh well. Let's get breakfast started!"

"More fish?" Josh yawned.

"Well, there's still a lot left here." Mel said. "The Digimon didn't eat it all."

"Time to migrate like Indians." Makoto commented dryly.

"But where will we go?" Aika asked. "We don't even know where we are now."

"I know where the DigiDestined shall go." All of the kids and Digimon got up to see Gennai standing there with all of his glory.

"It's Gennai." They all said.

"Yes, it's me." He smiled. "Anyway, DigiDestined, congratulations on beating Meramon."

"Thanks." Daisuke said. "It was mostly thanks to Angemon."

Tokomon blushed. "But I couldn't have done it without your energy."

"But that's not why I'm here." Gennai took their attention.

"Right." Makoto said. "You're here to take us home."

He shook his head. "I came to warn you that there are more dangers and yet more opportunities on the continent of Server."

"What do you mean, more opportunities?" Hitomi questioned.

"On the continent of Server lie your tags and crests." He said. "Usually, they'd be gone, but your parents gave the power of the crests back to the crests, so now they're back to their physical form."

"What?" Josh questioned.

Gennai thought for a second. "Let me put it this way. Years ago, the first generation of DigiDestined obtained crests with strong powers. For example, it gave their Champion leveled Digimon to digivolve into Ultimate. A few years after that, they were asked to give up that power to restore the Digital World. As of yesterday, however, your parents bound together and gave off enough energy to put the crests back into their physical state."

"Oh." Josh smiled.

"So those were the lights we saw." Eriko said.

"Yes." Gennai nodded. "Unfortunately, your parents lost their focus at the end, so they were scattered all over Server instead of in your hands."

"So we have to go to another continent where there are plenty of scary Digimon just so we can get a little crest?" Aika asked.

"Yes, but they have great powers. I know it'll help you fend off the evil that lurks within. Are you up for this?"

The DigiDestined looked at each other for approval then nodded.

"Great. Good luck, DigiDestined."

()()

"Do you see what's on the news?" Agumon asked Gatomon.

"How can I not? I'm right next to you." They both hung on the heavy pole Michio used for weights as he did his bench presses.

On the news, the police were surrounding the school as a reporter asked about the missing children. "Be on the lookout for twelve children. They are the following from oldest to youngest: Daisuke Motomiya, age 14; Aika Ichijouji, age 13; Mel Kido, age 12; Makoto Izumi-Tachikawa, age 12; Eriko Hida, age 12; Kim Ishida, age 12; Connor Takaishi, age 12; Hitomi Izumi-Tachikawa, age 11; Josh Nagamiya, age 10; Osamu Ichijouji, age 9; Yukio Kamiya, age 5; and Shoji Ishida, age 4." He said. "They were last seen at this very school, getting ready for summer camp. If you have any information, please contact the school at once."

"Who called the police?" Agumon asked. "I thought we had this covered."

"I guess the school did. They wanted to prove they had everything under control." Gatomon answered.

"This isn't working." Agumon said. "You're too light. We're unbalanced."

"Fine." Gatomon grabbed a ten-pound weight with her tail. "How's this?" Michio nodded.

Kari came out of the bathroom seconds later. "I hate morning sickness." She sat on the couch when she saw the strange Digimon exercising apparatus. "Guys, give Michio a break." Michio set the bar down as they landed on their feet. "Hit the showers. You've been working too hard."

Michio shrugged and wiped the sweat off of his brow with a towel before leaving. Tai came out and sat next to Kari. "I heard they called the police."

She nodded. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, I already got someone to handle that." He smiled and pointed to the TV. "Check it out."

Kari continued to watch as Sora and Cody stepped in front of the camera. "Cody Hida, defense attorney." Cody introduced himself. "I want to declare that I have found my daughter."

"I found my children too." Sora said. "In fact, all of our friends did."

"Really?" The reporter asked. "That's great! Where were they?"

"They were…" Sora looked at Cody.

"They were at…the candy store." Cody improvised. "They snuck off to get candy. Those kids really didn't want to go to summer camp!"

"Yep!" Sora agreed. "Anyway, we found them and now they're grounded!"

"That oughta show them to get the whole town in a frenzy!" Cody laughed.

"Definitely!" Sora laughed with them.

The reporter just looked at the camera guy who just shrugged. "Well, there you have it! The twelve kids have been found! Now here's Mike with sports."

Kari turned off the TV and rolled her eyes. "Okay, so tell me something. What if they aren't in the Digital World, and they actually are lost on this planet?"

He snapped his fingers. "But they are. Gennai said so."

"You got access to Gennai?"

"Of course." He said. "He has internet."

She raised an eyebrow. "You talked to him on the internet?"

He nodded. "I asked if they were there and he said they are." Kari gave him a look before he slapped his forehead. "I can't believe I was so stupid. We can bring them back through the internet!"

She shook her head. "No, we can't."

Tai snapped his fingers. "You're right. We'd only be able to meet in the internet. We wouldn't be able to go through the Digital World. The portal probably wouldn't let us."

"No, I mean, we can't."

"Why not?"

Kari looked at the computer that sat in the den surrounded by clutter. It reminded her of their father's computer room. Like him, Tai loved his mess where it was. "Just think about it." She looked back at Tai. "Our kids are in the Digital World for a reason. It was just like how we were. We had a reason to be sent to DigiWorld, and so are they. We could destroy both worlds if we keep trying to get them back."

Tai pierced his lips as he thought about it. "Then we won't get them out. We'll go in and help them."

"No, Tai." She said. "Michio and I have been talking about it last night."

"Really?"

"Yes. We thought that it would be best if we let them fight the enemy by themselves. I mean, that's why they chose the children instead of us."

"But that makes no sense. When it was you and Davis and the rest, we were still able to go into DigiWorld." He crossed his arms.

"No, you weren't." Tai gave her a glance of confusion telling her to explain. "You guys just tagged along. We had to bring you into the Digital World."

He thought about it. Maybe they weren't needed. The original DigiDestined should've retired a long time ago, but they kept going. That had to explain why only the D3s could open the gate. "But what about the time I got to DigiWorld? Agumon needed my help and we found Davis's Digi-Egg together. What happened then?"

She shrugged. "You tell me."

He thought about it. "Well, I remember just getting sucked in. Do you think I was destined to give them their digivices?"

Kari nodded.

"Well, what do you know?" He chuckled. Then he got serious again. "So this is their battle."

"We can't help them now."

Tai stood up and paced the floor. "Cho is not going to like this." He sighed and dropped his digivice on the floor. "Not at all."

"Maybe she'll understand."

"It's not just her." He sighed. "No one will like this. I better make a few calls."

()()

"Ninety-seven bottles of milk on the wall!" Yukio began again. "Ninety-seven bottles of milk! You take one down, pass it around! Ninety-six bottles of milk on the wall!"

"No!" Daisuke shouted. "No more milk!"

The kids stared at the large ocean while Hitomi took out her computer. "Gennai sent me a map via my laptop. All we have to do is follow it and we'll get our tags!"

"Good work, Hitomi." Yukio cheered.

"Yeah, good work!" Daisuke said. "Now, where do we go?"

She turned her laptop on and a holographic screen appeared. She typed in a few things on the keyboard and moved some things around on the screen. Hitomi never could believe the fact that their parents used to use a mouse to "click" on things.

"We go east just past this ocean." She said. "Looks like we'll need a raft."

Bukamon floated onto Mel's shoulder. "Allow me! I'll just turn to Ikkakumon!"

"Or…!" Hitomi interrupted. "We can build a raft so we won't attract too much attention."

"Let's do it!" Daisuke said. "Cut down some trees!"

And they did just that. The Digimon knocked down a tree and chopped it up while the kids tied it together with an abandoned rope. "Looks pretty good to me." Makoto said. "But do we have to go on a raft when Birdramon can fly?"

Mel smiled. "Do you get seasick too?"

He shrugged as he blushed. "Maybe…"

"I can give you a ride!" Kim volunteered. "I mean, if you want it."

All three of them looked at Hitomi. She shrugged. "I guess it would be okay. But be careful."

"Right!" Makoto said.

"Are you up for it, Yokomon?" Kim asked her little plant friend.

"I can do it!" She cheered. "Yokomon digivolve to…Biyomon!" Then she started panting. "I can't do it."

"Well, I guess you're coming back onto the raft." Hitomi told them.

Mel held Eriko's hand as she carefully got on board "Careful… Careful…" Mel kept saying until she was safely on. Then he got on followed by everyone else.

"Next stop, Server!" Yukio cheered. "Ninety-six bottles of milk on the wall!"

"Ninety-six bottles of milk!" The others joined in. "You take one down, pass it around! Ninety-five bottles of milk on the wall!"

About an hour and a half later, most stopped singing. They finished the song, but Yukio started over. Now, they're back at "Ninety-four bottles of milk on the wall! Ninety-four bottles of milk!"

"Yukio, stop." Josh said, waking up. "Here we are." The raft hit the sand and stopped safely.

"How come you were asleep, everybody?" Yukio asked. "We have a world to save!" He jumped off the raft. Shoji jumped off next and ran with him.

"Hey, guys!" Daisuke called. "Calm down!" He jumped off and ran to go retrieve them.

Meanwhile, the others got off the raft as carefully as possible. "Let's quit playing around!" Aika yelled. "We have to find those tags!"

"And some food." Poromon whimpered. "We're hungry."

"Right." Aika said, picking up her tiny bird Digimon.

"I still have some food from the village." Mel said, pulling out his bag. All of the Digimon piled on top of each other to grab what they could!

"Now, all that leaves is the tags." Eriko said. She was pushed aside by a running Yukio and Shoji.

"You can't catch me!" Shoji yelled. Suddenly he tripped, making Yukio fall on top of him.

"Ow!" They both cried.

"My toe!" Shoji bawled. "It hurts!" He rolled over to the side while Yukio took a look at what tripped them. It was a small, heavy box.

"Hey, look, everybody!" He called everyone over as he opened it. The contents within began to glow as he reached inside.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

He pulled them out and revealed… "The tags!" Everyone cheered.

"Here's one for everybody!" Yukio passed them out.

Little did they know, SkullSatamon was watching them through the trees. "You may have the tags, but you'll never get those crests."

* * *

Trivia: I liked using Sora and Cody for the news report scene because they're hardly seen together.

A/N: What do you think? Review please!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: What do you think?

* * *

Chapter 9

Connor pointed his camera at all of the kids. "Previously, we just found our tags. What kind of crests we belong to us still remains a mystery." He said.

"Don't point that at me!" Aika squealed, snatching Makoto's mirror from him. After doing a brief check, she gave it back to him. "Okay! Now, I'm camera ready!"

"Here we go!" Josh cheered. "I see a strange symbol!"

"Where?" Sam questioned.

"There!" He pointed to a strange rock formation in the middle of the forest. It stood in the middle of a bunch of trees, looking quite random.

Hitomi squinted. "It looks like a…star? Or a sun?"

"It's a sun." Daisuke said. "It's definitely a sun."

"Maybe it's a sign." Josh said. "You know, a sign to a village where the crest will be."

"Well, let's go…"

"Wait!" Yukio yelled. He held up his tag that was glowing. "Hey, everybody, look! My tag's glowing!"

"Maybe your crest is nearby." Josh gave him a pat on the back. "Let's find it!"

But suddenly, the rock formation started to glow. "It's in there!" Koromon cheered.

"Allow me!" DemiVeemon volunteered. "DemiVeemon digivolve to…Veemon!" He flexed his muscles before yelling "V-headbutt!" and smashing into the rock.

The small crest started to float from the rock and into Yukio's tag. "I got my crest!"

"One down, eleven to go!" Daisuke cheered. The rest of the group gave their cheer before searching for another.

But that was easier said than done.

"Bone Blaster!" A voice yelled as a powerful beam crashed onto the surface.

"Where did that come from?" Hitomi asked.

"There!" Kim pointed upwards and saw SkullSatamon hanging from one of the branches. He leapt off the tree and behind the DigiDestined.

"That's SkullSatamon." Biyomon told them. "He's a very strong Ghost Digimon with very evil powers."

"What's he doing here?" Veemon asked.

SkullSatamon took a step towards them. "Give me the tags or suffer!"

"Okay." Mel took his tag from around his neck and was about to hand it over when Eriko took it from him.

"No, Mel! Don't!" She said. "You can't give up your tag."

"She's right." Kim said.

"We have to digivolve to Champion!" Aika said.

"But SkullSatamon is already at the Ultimate level." Motimon told them.

Hitomi thought for a second while SkullSatamon raised his staff. Daisuke grabbed her and yelled "Run!"

The DigiDestined bolted as fast as they could as SkullSatamon threw another attack. "Bone Blaster!"

Suddenly, they headed to a dead end. A mountain blocked their way. "That's it." Mel said. "We're going to die."

"No, we're not!" Daisuke protested. "Jeez! Can you be more negative?"

"Look! A cave!" Salamon called.

"Let's go!" Daisuke led his team inside. "Is everyone here?" He did a head count. "Who's missing?"

"Yukio!" Josh and Hitomi exclaimed. Josh ran back outside and saw him and Agumon standing up to SkullSatamon. He held up his crest as if he knew how it worked. SkullSatamon only raised his staff as he got ready to fire another beam from it when Josh dashed to the rescue. He grabbed him and Agumon just in time for the blast to miss them.

"Good job!" Daisuke praised when they were back into the cave safely. Just then, his tag started to glow along with Aika's.

"Isn't that a coincidence?" Aika arched her eyebrows. "Both of our crests are in the same place!" She stood closer to Daisuke. "Isn't that cool?"

He rolled his eyes. "I guess."

Sneaking up behind them was SkullSatamon who gave a loud screech! "Here I am!" He yelled coming after them.

"V-headbutt!" Veemon charged after him but was swatted away like a fly.

"Spiral Twister!" Biyomon shot her attack but didn't do anything along with Agumon's Pepper Breath.

"You're going to have to do better than that!"

The kids were backed up against the wall. The only light came from Daisuke's and Aika's tags. Then, the wall behind them started to shrink and glow. It kept shrinking and shrinking until it was the size of a crest.

"No!" SkullSatamon yelled. "Bone Blaster!" With perfect aim, he hit the crest, but it only reflected back at him.

"The crest saved us!" Hitomi exclaimed. "Prodigious!"

The crest then floated into Daisuke's tag. "Great! My crest!" It was a powder blue color with swirl on it. It was different from what they've seen before.

"Lightning Paw!" A newly digivolved Gatomon sprang up into the air and smashed the roof, blocking the kids from SkullSatamon. "Let's get out of here!" She said. "Those rocks won't hold him for long."

"Wait! What about mine!" Aika turned to her left and noticed another symbol of a flame engraved into a rock. "This must be mine." She lifted her tag as it did shrink and slide into her tag. It was a very dark red color. "I wonder what it means."

"Come on, Aika!" Sam said as the others ran out the other side.

After a good while of running, the children finally felt safe behind some trees. "Okay, three down, nine to go." Makoto said. He grabbed his mirror to check his hair, but he didn't see himself. He saw his mom, Mimi. Makoto gave a small shriek as he dropped the mirror on a rock, breaking it. "Oh no." He said, picking up the pieces. Then, he found his crest coming out. "The Crest of Sincerity." Makoto said as it slid in his tag.

"Is that what it's called?" Aika asked.

He nodded. "I know that because Mom got it tattooed on the back of her shoulder."

"Cool! I wonder what mine's called! Maybe I can get it tattooed too!" She took a look at it. "It has a flame on it and it's dark red. I wonder if that means if that I'm hot! Do you hear that Daisuke?" He didn't answer. "Daisuke?" She turned around and saw him and Yukio looking back at the hole in the wall they left a long time ago.

Yukio looked up at Daisuke who looked back at him. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asked the younger DigiDestined.

"He's gonna come back." He answered. "That guy wants our crests, right?"

"Right." Veemon told him.

"Well, he can't have them." Agumon said.

"Gennai said that we can digivolve into Ultimate if we have our crest." Daisuke said. "He warned us that there is more danger here, and he must be it." Yukio nodded. "You're not afraid?"

He shook his head. "I have Agumon and you guys. If we work together, we can beat SkullSatamon."

Daisuke nodded. "You're very brave."

Yukio smiled. "Thanks! Daddy calls it courage!" He took out his little monocular and searched the continent. "Plus, this can be like a game. Like a race to get the crests!"

"That does sound fun." Daisuke said. He turned to the others. "Are you guys up for a little race?"

"Sure!" Josh exclaimed. "I can race!" Obviously, he loved a physical challenge.

"We're going to find the crests as quick as we could." Daisuke said.

"Beautiful!" Hitomi exclaimed typing things on her computer. "I'm picking up on their energy!"

"Who's energy?" Daisuke asked.

"The crests!" She turned the holographic screen and faced it away from her so the others can see. It was a map shaped in a circle. "Gennai said our parents lost focus so the crests were scattered. By this pattern here, I've indicated that they were all basically in the same circle of thought. That is, everyone except for Mom."

"So the crests are in a circle?" Kim asked.

Hitomi nodded. "Precisely."

"Then, let's split up like before and meet up at the very tip." Daisuke said. "Come on, everyone, let's do it!"

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered as they split up. Well, everyone except for Aika.

"Wait a minute!" She yelled.

"What is it?" Connor asked.

"We can't split up or we're more vulnerable." She said. "Twelve is harder to take on than six."

Daisuke rolled her eyes. He hates being wrong. "Right. But we have to hurry or SkullSatamon will find us and kill us one by one."

"Fine! Let's go!" Aika cheered.

Everyone power walked as they held their tags up and around. They looked behind trees, under bushes, everywhere. The whole process was getting tiring quick. "Hitomi, can't you zoom in on the location?" Eriko asked, wiping her brow. "This is torture!"

"Unfortunately, no. I tried that earlier." She panted. "All I know is that the first one is within a thirty-five foot radius."

Everyone looked around. "That's mine!" Kim cheered. "Where is it?" She stopped when a red rose turned into her crest and slid into the tag. "It's Mom's crest of love."

"Great." Makoto smiled.

"Okay! Four down, eight to go!" Daisuke cheered.

"You mean, five down, seven to go." Connor said.

"Even better!"

Hitomi got back onto her computer and calculated. "Okay, the next one is pretty far. This way!" She ran passed the trees into a desert. By the looks of it, the desert didn't end.

"Can I make an assumption?" Mel asked. "This continent is starting to look like Australia."

"This is still DigiWorld." Bukamon told him. "What's an Australia anyway?"

He shook his head. "Never mind."

"This will take forever." Shoji said. "I hope we find the crest soon, Tsunomon. I don't like to see my friends in trouble."

"Me either." Tsunomon agreed.

The twelve children and Digimon traveled far into the desert. Strangely, it was too quiet. There weren't any Digimon trying to stop them. That is…

Rocks within the cavern started to fall. The screams of SkullSatamon could be heard as the rocks finally collapsed. "Those kids think they got rid of me that easily. They have another thing coming!" He escaped from the cavern and leapt into the air. "I'm coming DigiDestined!"

()()

"How do you think SkullSatamon is doing?" The Goddess of Darkness asked.

"Well, he hasn't come back crying yet." Tsukaimon said. "He didn't fail like Meramon."

"That's good." She said. There was silence. The only thing breaking it was the tingling of the bells. "He should hurry with that. Those kids are pretty…determined."

"Maybe he needs help." BlackGatomon suggested.

"BlackGatomon, bite your tongue! I know those kids aren't that strong. They can't even reach Ultimate." She paused. "Well, at least not yet."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And did you find NeoDevimon?"

"Yes, ma'am." They both said.

"He's willing to follow your request." BlackGatomon told her.

She began to laugh and evil laugh. It was slow and weak until it started to build into an evil cackle. "Perfect! We'll wait until the time is right. Trapping the DigiDestined is the perfect way to control this world for good!"

()()

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten." Daisuke counted. "We just need two more."

By now, the DigiDestined stopped for their third break. They passed around water as they admired their crests. All of them had crest similar to their parents except for Eriko and Sam who hadn't found theirs yet.

"I wonder what kind I'll get." Eriko said.

Sam nodded. "Me too. I wonder what Digimon Stingmon will digivolve too!"

"And Ankylomon!" Eriko got excited. "We should find them!"

"Yeah!" Her and Sam stood up and began searching some more.

"Hey!" Daisuke called. "Wait for us!"

A few hundred steps were all it took for the DigiDestined to hit the big Sphinx that sat beautifully in the sand. Eriko's tag glowed brighter and brighter the closer they got. She looked up at the statue before going inside the opening located at the breast. The walls were lined with various symbols of data.

"So this is the abnormal code Dad went on about." Hitomi said, pulling out her laptop.

Eriko's tag glowed again as she went deeper. Then, she found a symbol of what appeared to be a tiger eye. "This is mine!" She held out her crest as the slab shrunk and slid into her tag.

"Prodigious! You won't believe what I found!" Hitomi practically cheered for joy.

"What?" Makoto asked.

"I've stumbled upon some sort of trail. It leads to an underground layer in the upside down pyramid next door." Everyone looked outside at the pyramid that sat the wrong way. "With this map, I could lead us to the crest!"

"Great work, Hitomi!" Daisuke gave her a pat on the back. "Now, Hitomi, Sam, Josh, Connor, and I will go over there. The rest of you stay here and keep watch for SkullSatamon."

"Be careful." Aika told them.

"We will." Daisuke promised before heading out.

The five kids ran next door to the pyramid and waited for any signs of SkullSatamon. "I believe it's safe." Hitomi told them. "There's a wall we can go through...here." She stepped right through as if nothing was there. Inside was cold and abandoned. Somehow, it was still standing seeing as the walls were smashed through. It was completely different from the outside.

"Wow." Daisuke commented. "This place is trashed!"

"Sh!" The other kids hissed.

"You don't want anyone to hear you." Connor said.

"Right." Daisuke whispered. "Now, where's that crest?"

"This way." Hitomi said, leading them down a hallway. They quietly went through the broken walls and turned down many hallways. But something was following them.

"I smell a Digimon." Veemon whispered.

"Me too." Gatomon said.

"Please let it be good." Josh pleaded.

"You're wrong." A deep voice said _right next to Josh's ear!_

"SkullSatamon!" The Digimon yelled.

"In the flesh!"

"Hitomi," Daisuke whispered to her, "take Sam to the crest." Then out loud, he said "Josh, take Connor to the crest!"

"Got it!" Josh and Hitomi said before taking off in different directions.

"You want a fight, you got it!" Daisuke pulled out his digivice. "Digivolve, Veemon!"

"Veemon digivolve to... ExVeemon!" He cried. "Vee-Laser!" All the laser did was knock him back a little. "Vee-Laser!" Nothing. "This isn't working!"

"I guess it's my turn!" He raised his staff.

"No!" Daisuke yelled.

Meanwhile, Josh and Connor kept running until a wall collapsed in front of them. "Oh no! It's SkullSatamon!" Gatomon cried.

"Digivolve, Tokomon!" Connor took out his digivice.

"Tokomon digivolve to...Patamon!"

Gatomon gasped at who turned out to be behind the wall. "It's... BlackGatomon!"

The dark Digimon mirrored Gatomon by just standing there. "BlackGatomon looks just like you." Josh pointed out. "He must be working for SkullSatamon!"

Tsukaimon came out next. "We're not working for him. We're working with him."

Connor gasped. "He looks like Patamon…but purple!"

"Look." BlackGatomon said. "We don't have time for this. We could be fired just being here. Our boss didn't want us to intervene but we want a piece of you DigiDestined!"

Just then, Togemon crashed through the outside wall with Makoto on her back. "Leave them alone!" She roared, punching both Digimon.

"Togemon! Makoto!" Josh and Connor called.

"Guys, we're here!" Aika said, coming in on Aquilamon.

"We have to get out of here." He said. "We saw SkullSatamon on the move."

"We can't go." Josh told him. "We need to find Sam's crest."

"Fine." Makoto jumped off. "We'll just have to stall him until he finds it."

"Not if we have something to do with it!" BlackGatomon said.

"Come on, BlackGatomon! Let's split up!" Tsukaimon said before they ran away.

"After them!" Yukio said after Greymon crashed through. The both of them immediately took off after Tsukaimon.

"Okay! But no more making holes!" Josh shouted after him.

"Let's go with him." Connor said. Josh nodded.

"Let's go with them, Togemon!" Makoto said.

Aika turned to the rest of the team. "You four go after BlackGatomon. I have to find Daisuke."

"Right." They said, doing what they were told.

Meanwhile, Sam and Hitomi headed down the final hallway. "We just turn left." She told him. "It should be close."

They turned to the left and saw what looked like an abandoned lab. It was the typical messy computer tech lab with broken keyboards and screens along one wall and levers along the others with a huge hole in the ground. Underneath was a huge mess of black wires.

"It would be best if we didn't go down that." Hitomi told Sam.

He nodded. "But how do we get across?"

"Allow me!" Motimon said.

"And me!" Minomon volunteered.

"Motimon digivolve to…Tentomon!"

"Minomon digivolve to…Wormmon!"

"Tentomon digivolve to…Kabuterimon!"

"Wormmon digivolve to…Stingmon!"

Kabuterimon and Stingmon grabbed their partners and flew them to the opposite wall. Sam held up his tag, but it didn't glow. "Are you sure it's in here?"

"I'm positive." Hitomi said. "We just have to look around."

On the other end of the pyramid, Aika flew on Aquilamon around to find their leader. "Daisuke? Where are you?" She called. "Daisuke!"

As if on cue, Daisuke and ExVeemon crashed through the wall. "Aika?" He asked once the rubble and bricks fell to the ground.

"Watch out, Daisuke." ExVeemon picked up his partner as SkullSatamon came through the whole.

"Where's the crest?" He asked.

"You can't have it!" Aika yelled.

"Blast Ring!" Aquilamon shouted as he launched a ring-shaped beam.

SkullSatamon chuckled as he shoved the ring aside. Then, he picked up his staff. "Bone Blaster!" The blast was big enough to knock Aquilamon down with Aika still on top.

"Aika!" Daisuke called.

"So long." SkullSatamon said. "I have bigger fish to fry!" With a mighty leap, he was gone into the shadows.

"No!" Daisuke stood up. "We have to stop him!" He ran over to Aika who was knocked unconscious. "Aika, you have to wake up. Aquilamon!"

Aika fluttered her eyes open. "Where… Where is he?"

"He's after your brother. We have to find him." He held out a hand to help her up.

"Let's go."

Sam, on the other hand, looked kept looking around until his tag finally began to glow. "Here!" She called. "It's around here!"

"Hurry! Grab it!" Hitomi told him.

Sam kept looking until he found the small Crest of Kindness in one of the keyboards. "Found it!" He was about to grab it, but…

"Bone Blaster!"

A powerful beam came between them and knocked the two kids down. SkullSatamon entered the room. "Sam, where's the crest?" Hitomi asked. "Go, Kabuterimon!"

"Eltro Shocker!" Kabuterimon released a powerful electric surge, causing SkullSatamon to fall over.

But he got right back up. "The crest is mine!" He jumped over to the kids' side and grabbed it off of the floor. "It's mine!"

"Nova Blast!"

"Needle Spray!" Togemon and Greymon burst through the walls.

"Careful!" Hitomi called. "I've calculated that the pit is from Etemon's Dark Network. It's the same thing that led to his demise approximately twenty-nine years ago."

"And that's how we'll beat him!" Daisuke said, coming in. "Now, everyone!"

"Ready!" Everyone said.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" SkullSatamon yelled. "Bone Blaster!" He hit the Digimon, but then he noticed. "Wait! There are only six of you!" The ground suddenly started to shake.

"I met up with them earlier." Daisuke said. "They're off wrecking the place!"

"What?! You idiot!" Suddenly something rammed through the wall and shoved SkullSatamon. He turned around and saw Ikkakumon with Mel on his back.

"You have the crest. Give it back to Sam!" Eriko came in on Ankylomon.

"Forget it!" He lifted his staff to point it to them, but something stopped him. "Angemon?"

Pieces of rubble began to fall, but Angemon stayed focus on the enemy. "The Powers of Darkness shall not overcome!" He drew a fist back. "Hand of Fate!"

SkullSatamon was surprised by the heavy blow, but it didn't stop him. "Look!"

Angemon didn't turn around but the others did. Tsukaimon stood there with an evil grin. "Tsukaimon digivolve to…Devidramon!"

Everyone gasped at the newly evolved Digimon as he roared. Devidramon flew his gargoyle like body over to SkullSatamon and grabbed the crest with his mouth. BlackGatomon appeared from behind broken bricks. "Over here!" She called. Devidramon tossed it to her. "Let's get out of here! This place will collapse!" She leapt onto Devidramon's back and they flew off.

"No!" Sam yelled. "My crest!"

"Sam, let's go!" Aika yelled.

"Everyone move out!" Daisuke said. "Having the building crash on top of him won't work if we're all dead wit him!"

SkullSatamon gave an evil cackle. "You're too late, Angemon!"

Angemon drew back another fist. "I'm not too late for this! Hand of Fate!" He punched SkullSatamon and dropped him into the dark pit of a failed Dark Network.

"No!" SkullSatamon yelled in torture as the electric surge consumed him, sharing the same fate as Etemon.

"Come on, Angemon!" Connor called.

With lightning speed, Angemon raced to his partner's rescue and fled the pyramid just in time for it to collapse.

And SkullSatamon was gone.

"No!" Sam continued to cry on his knees. "My crest. We were so close." Aika and the others gave their support as Sam's tears fell onto the sand. "DEVIDRAMON!"

* * *

Trivia: I split the characters into teams before because it was hard to write with 12 kids in mind. But then I thought it was just as hard to write with two groups of six.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: Keep reviewing!

* * *

Chapter 10

Twelve DigiDestined took off running through the desert in search of two particular Digimon. So far, they were running out of luck. "This isn't working." Daisuke said.

"Go, Birdramon!" Kim commanded, jumping onto her leg. "Let's go!"

"Right!" Everyone agreed as they jumped onto their champions. With the increased speed, they managed to find Devidramon and Gatomon.

"Hey, stop!" Daisuke yelled.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon flapped her wings and shot fireballs towards the dark Digimon, but they kept going unscathed.

"Run faster, Greymon!" Yukio commanded. "They're getting away!"

"Nova Blast!"

"Go, Garurumon!" Shoji yelled. "We have to get them! I know you can do it!"

Garurumon grunted in agreement before putting more power into his legs. "Howling Blaster!" He shot a blue flame that missed them.

"This is getting old fast." BlackGatomon said. "Let's just go, Devidramon." And as fast as lightning, they zoomed away.

The kids gasped at the fact that the dark Digimon disappeared. No, it wasn't because they traveled too fast. They were just gone. Even though everyone saw nothing but sand from there on out, Daisuke saw something else. "Guys, it's a portal!"

"How did you conclude that?" Hitomi asked.

"No time to explain." He told them. "It's closing. Just follow me single-file!" The others nodded and followed close behind. Daisuke swallowed as he made his way closer to it. "Here it is, DigiDestined! Let's do it!" He closed his eyes as they went through. He opened them again after he collided with the ground. "What happened?" He whispered.

That's when Daisuke noticed that everything was dark. The sky was black like they were in a different world. Or in space. The ground could barely be seen. He looked to his left and saw DemiVeemon getting back onto his feet. The others came in and had the same fate. They fell onto the ground as their Digimon went back to their In-Training forms.

"Where are we?" Eriko asked, standing closer to Mel.

"It's…too dark." Josh commented in a low whisper, his breath getting shorter. "It's too dark."

Tears went down Yukio's cheeks and chin after seeing his cousin scared. He had to admit that he was terrified himself. But he balled up his fists as his crest started to glow. "Let's go find them." He picked up Koromon and started walking around. "Come on, everybody."

Daisuke nodded. Aika sighed. "We're being led by a five-year-old." She complained.

"But you can learn a lot from him." Daisuke told her. "I know I am."

Josh balled up his fists and gazed at his feet, lagging behind as the others kept going. _Why am I so afraid?_ He thought to himself. _It's the same Digital World. It's just dark._

"Josh?" He looked up and saw Connor. "Are you okay?"

Josh shook his head in response. "No, but…I have to do this."

"What's wrong?" Connor asked his friend, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He shrugged. "I'm ready to fight, but something's holding me back." He said. "I'm scared but I don't know why."

Connor nodded. "Me too, but I'm hopeful." He gave a smile. "I think we'll be fine."

Josh smiled. "You think?"

"I know!"

"Josh, Connor, let's go!" Daisuke called.

The two nodded before running off. But the topic still remained in their heads. "I have to believe in us." Josh told him. "We are the DigiDestined after all. We can defeat the darkness the way our parents did. We'll find our way…" Then his crest started to glow. It glowed brighter and brighter. In fact, it was giving off straight up light. The ground was a little more visible now. It was lined with black hex nuts and right in front of them sat a huge purple and black castle.

"You did it, Josh!" Connor gave him a pat on the back. "Way to go!"

"That's awesome!" Daisuke cheered.

"That must be the place they're holding my crest!" Sam cheered. "Should we go inside?"

"No, we should let them keep it." Daisuke said sarcastically. "Of course we'll go in there and take it back! Come on, everyone! Let's do it!"

()()

"SkullSatamon is gone? Are you sure?" The Goddess of Darkness asked.

"I'm sorry, Goddess of Darkness." BlackGatomon said.

"We knew how much you liked him." Tsukaimon said.

There was silence. "Those kids are tough." She growled. "We need to step up the game."

"Should I digivolve and teach them a lesson?" BlackGatomon asked, getting excited.

"Bite that tongue! I have another plan. We need to get rid of those kids." She thought for a second. "Wait a minute. I'm feeling something!"

"What is it, ma'am?" Tsukaimon asked.

"Shut up!" She screamed until she heard the front door shut. "You led them here?"

BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon gasped. "We did?"

"That's it! We're separating them. Where's NeoDevimon?"

"Right here, m'lady." NeoDevimon stepped out of the shadows and in front of the throne.

"And where's the crest?" BlackGatomon showed the crest to her. "Beautiful." Then to NeoDevimon, she said. "Those kids are somewhere in the castle. Take the one without the crest and take him or her to the one place they'll never look. That should get them to separate and look for him while we hunt them down one by one!"

"Yes, m'lady." NeoDevimon stood up with a wicked laugh.

"Don't disappoint me."

"I shall not, m'lady, for I have the perfect place in mind!"

()()

Sam's tag began to glow again as they headed towards one of the doors. "This is it." He whispered to the others.

"Help me out, Josh." Daisuke said. He knew that Josh was one of the strongest on the team besides himself. Whatever he lacked in muscle mass he made up in height.

Josh nodded before stepping up. "On three. One, two, three!" Both of them rammed into the door. "Again!" They rammed again. "Again!" Finally, the door opened.

The dark Digimon looked behind them. "The DigiDestined!" Tsukaimon announced.

"They got here quickly." BlackGatomon said.

Sam stepped forward. "I want my crest back!"

NeoDevimon stepped forward with an evil grin. "I have a better idea!" He dashed over to Sam and grabbed him.

"No! Sam!" Aika shouted, running his way.

"Aika, stop!" Daisuke grabbed her hand. "You could get killed!"

"But I can't just let my brother go!"

"Neither can I!" Minomon jumped onto Sam's back. "I'm here for you, buddy!"

"Fine! I'll just take care of both of you!" NeoDevimon said. "BlackGatomon, are you ready?"

"Let's do it!" BlackGatomon jumped in front of them.

"Hey! That's my line!" Daisuke pouted.

"Cat's Eyes!" She glazed at Daisuke with her big brown eyes. He looked into them and felt completely useless. He couldn't move, he couldn't think. Daisuke was hypnotized. "Now, open the digital gate on this Digi-port."

Daisuke numbly nodded as he took out his digivice. Then, he went over to the Digi-port that sat in the corner. The others shouted and told him not to do it, but he was hypnotized. There was no turning back. "Digi-port, open." He said.

"Off you go!" BlackGatomon pushed them through.

"No!" Sam yelled. "Let me go!"

"Not a chance!" BlackGatomon said. "Lightning Paw!" With that, she smashed the small TV.

()()

"Davis, why did we come here?" Ken asked. They were in the school's computer lab once again, just waiting.

"Tai wanted me to try again." He explained. "He said we have to keep trying to open the Digi-ports to get an idea of what's happening."

Ken smiled as he bounced Keanu about. "He didn't tell you that, did he?"

Davis chuckled. "What gave me away?"

"He would've told all of us to keep trying. Why are we really here?"

Davis leaned in and poked the baby in his tummy, making him giggle. "I was thinking about what you said. You know, getting back into the dating scene."

Ken raised an eyebrow. "You really think you're ready?"

He nodded. "I need someone to help me raise a teenager. Someone needs to help me cope with the fact that in a few more years that he'll leave. I just got him back." He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "You know, when I dropped Daisuke off here for summer camp, I never hugged him. It's because he's too old for that now. It feels like I didn't get a chance to hug him when he was young and now it's too late."

"You'll get the chance." Ken told him.

"I just want him here."

Suddenly, there was an explosion from the bottom floor, making the baby cry. Ken squeezed him tighter. "It's okay, son. Daddy's here." Then to Davis, he said "What was that?"

"I have no idea." Davis shot out of his seat. "Stay up here. I'm going to see what's going on."

"Be careful." He tossed his digivice to him.

Davis nodded and fled from the scene. As he ran down the hallways, he noticed the sky outside getting dark. Really dark. It looked like a storm was coming, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Davis took a closer look and saw a huge hole over the city. "What the...? A black hole on Earth?" Taking him out of his many wonders, another crash was heard along with a woman shrieking for dear life. "I'm coming!" He called and ran faster.

The receptionist was under her desk as a raging Mushroomon was destroying the place. "Someone help!" She cried.

Just in time, Davis crashed in and threw himself over the desk. The secretary screamed again at the shocking entrance. "Hi!" He greeted. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"The diplomat!" She replied excitedly. "Thank goodness you're here!"

"Um...about that..." Davis said before another explosion was heard. "I'm the diplomat's friend, Davis. It's nice to meet you!" He held out a hand for her to shake.

But instead of shaking it, she raised an eyebrow. "There's a Digimon causing chaos in my office and you choose now to introduce yourself?"

Davis nodded, still with his hand out. "How else would you trust me if you don't know me?"

She nodded. "I wish we met under better circumstances but I'm Heidi." She shook his hand.

"Heidi, huh? Sounds pretty." She smiled. "Let's get out of here." Davis wrapped her arms around her. "I'm going to help you, okay? I'll protect you." Very carefully, he helped her from underneath the desk. The whole time, he looked for Mushroomon. He knew he was out there. But where was he hiding?

"Fungus Crusher!" Mushroomon came out of nowhere, throwing tiny mushroom bombs everywhere. One of them hit Davis's back making him cringe a bit, but he kept moving out of the room.

"Mushroomon! Stop!" Heidi called. But the attacks kept coming.

"Heidi, it's no use." He told her. "We have to leave him here."

"Davis…" Ken called as he came downstairs. "Things are collapsing! We have to go!"

He nodded. "Let's get out of here."

"But what about Mushroomon? And the school?" Heidi asked.

"Leave them!" Davis said, following Ken out of the building with her closely in his arms. But as they went outside, they saw that all of Tokyo was under attack. Buildings were getting knocked down and people were running for their lives. "Get back inside!"

"But Mushroomon…?" Heidi asked as Davis was already on his way inside.

"We need a safe zone." Ken said as Keanu cried harder. "Where do we go?"

Davis looked around and saw Mushroomon raging towards them. "We're trapped!" He said. Then, he let go of Heidi. "If the gym is exactly as I remember, it should be safe. Ken, take Heidi."

"What are you doing?" Heidi asked.

"I'm going to distract Mushroomon. You guys just make it to the gym safely."

Ken nodded. "Be careful."

Davis nodded before charging after the Digimon and tackling him to the ground. "Go! Hurry!"

"Come on!" Ken took Heidi by the hand and dashed towards the gym. But there was one problem. He didn't go to school here. "I have no idea where I'm going. Where's the gym?"

"Take a right here!" Heidi told them as they turned down the hallway.

()()

Sam and Minomon sat at the very floor of the dark castle, not knowing what these Digimon were going to do with him. They were alone, but not for long. "Sam…"

They turned around to see NeoDevimon along with BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon. "What do you want with us?" Sam asked.

"Don't you dare hurt Sam!" Minomon said, taking a step forward. "I'll digivolve!"

"And I want my crest back!"

NeoDevimon gave a small laugh. "If you want it, so be it." He tossed it over to him, leaving BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon confused.

"What are you doing?" BlackGatomon asked.

"That's exactly what we _don't_ want!" Tsukaimon added.

NeoDevimon looked at the two of them. It wasn't a good stare either. "Why don't you two keep Minomon busy? I would like to talk to Sam alone."

"Alone?" Sam asked as BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon gave evil glances to his Digimon.

"With pleasure!" They said and grabbed Minomon.

"Wait! Stop! No!" Minomon screamed as they took him away to the dark, or darker, depths of the castle.

"Minomon!" Sam called, almost getting up to catch up, but NeoDevimon held him down.

"Now, now, son. They're just going to play." NeoDevimon sat next to the boy. "Tell me something, kid. We're friends right?"

Sam was taken aback by this question. "Friends? I don't even know who you are! How do you even know me?"

"Easy. I'm NeoDevimon and you are one of the DigiDestined. This whole world knows about you. But…"

"But?"

NeoDevimon eased into him just a little bit closer. "You are far more superior to the others."

"What makes you say that?"

"You have Ken Ichijouji's blood. He was obviously the strongest out of the others. He was able to program some actual law into this chaotic world."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "But I was told that he tried to rule this place and he was cruel to the Digimon."

NeoDevimon shook his head. "Honestly, there are a lot of liars out there. But true friends don't lie."

"I already have true friends." He told him.

"True?" The Digimon laughed. "You call those kids true friends?" Sam nodded. "Then where are they? And why aren't they back?"

Sam gasped. He didn't even know where they went. What if they're in trouble? Why aren't they here?

"They're probably at home right now. That's all they ever wanted."

"No, we're here for a reason."

"Yes, defeat The Darkness just so you can go home." NeoDevimon told him. "But tell me something. Don't you have darkness within you?"

Sam looked down at his fingers. Maybe he was right. He did have a point.

"Also, I recall that you had an episode and no one was there to help you. When was it?" NeoDevimon pretended to think. "The fight against Meramon."

_Sam looked at Aika as he started hyperventilating. "Aika…" He looked back at Stingmon who got thrown to the ground. "No, Stingmon!" Then it happened. Seeing the Digimon failing made Sam fall into another wave of darkness. His eyes began to haze over as he collapsed to the ground._

"_Sam, please!" Aika said. "Don't do this now!"_

"How do you know about that?" Sam asked, trying to shake the memory.

"Because you and me are closer than you believe." NeoDevimon wrapped an arm around the boy. "Sam, I'm your friend. These kids aren't worth being DigiDestined like you. They can't even keep their team together. And they're causing more harm to this world than good."

"They are?" The Digimon nodded. "And you really think I can help?"

He nodded again. "I know you can. And I'll help you, but there's one thing you have to do for me."

"What is it?"

"I need you to take the crests. Those kids don't deserve it and they can't handle the power they have. But you, Sam, you can."

Sam smiled. "I'll do it."

"Great! And I'll help you by giving you a boost of your own Dark Energy." He held up his long, skeleton hand. "You know, Dark Energy is very powerful and can actually help this world."

"You can? You'll boost my energy?"

"If you'll agree to it." He said. "Friends always ask for permission."

Sam stood up. "I'll do it. I'll save your world."

"Great!" NeoDevimon cackled loudly.

Minomon came out running, managing to get away from the other Digimon. "Sam!"

"Oh, no you don't!" BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon tackled him.

"Guilty Claw!" NeoDevimon pierced his claw right into Sam's back, making him howl. His screams echoed through the halls as well as the laughs from NeoDevimon. Sam's eyes eventually grew darker until it was all black like when he was born. Nothing but darkness went through his veins, showing through his skin. Then, he fell to his knees and collapsed onto the ground. "Now, rise, Sam. Show me your darkness!"

The dark veins eventually went away as Sam stumbled onto his feet. He opened his normal looking eyes and blinked. "I feel it." He said. "I feel it!"

"Great! Now, go get those kids!"

"Yes, master!" Sam ran out of the doors, into the rest of the Digital World where The Darkness threatens to concur.

* * *

Trivia: The story from half of this chapter on was rewritten because the original sucked! Then my flashdrive broke so I rewrote it again (and a third time). This rewrite, I believe, is a lot better.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: I'm wasting my summer.

* * *

Chapter 11

"I believe my plan is going just swimmingly. Don't you think?"

"Yes, Goddess of Darkness." NeoDevimon said, kneeling to the shadowy throne.

"But your plan is different from my plan." She said slightly annoyed. "You better explain."

NeoDevimon stood up. "You see, m'lady, the boy had a large amount of darkness inside of him. I felt it the moment he arrived."

"And?"

"I decided to bring it out of him and made him fight with his friends. Soon enough, the DigiDestined will be fighting each other for their own crest!"

The Goddess squealed like a little fangirl. "That's just delicious!" She said. "NeoDevimon, I knew you were the superior choice."

"Thank you, m'lady."

"Your Highness," BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon entered the room, "the deed you have requested is done."

There was a bit of movement followed by a little bit of jingling. "It's finally done?" She asked. "Darkness is spreading throughout the Human World?" Clapping was heard, indicating her claps of joy. "Lovely!"

()()

Meanwhile, in Japan, people were running left and right, trying to evacuate. But with all of the people, traffic was starting to get backed up and was at a stand-still. Tai and Cho happened to be in one of those cars, just sitting there. "Why is traffic so bad?" Tai asked. "It's not even rush hour."

Suddenly, an Elecmon fell right on their windshield, making the couple shriek and hug each other. The Digimon crawled over the car and jumped onto another. "Does that answer your question?" Cho asked.

Tai let go and got out of the car. That's when he noticed how dark it was. He noticed all of the destruction and panic. A few more Digimon ran passed him, all looking very dangerous and full of rage. "Let's go." He told Cho.

"But, what about the car?" Cho asked, getting out and running to her husband's side. Other people got out of their cars and started running too.

"Forget it. We have to find the others." He held her hand and began running. "I just hope they're all in one place."

"I kind of doubt that." Cho said once they were safely out of the main street. "Look up!"

Tai stopped and looked to see Pegasusmon with T.K. on top. They were flying towards the dark hole, but something blasted them, causing them to fall. Tai gasped as the two plummeted at a fast pace. "Let's go! We have to see if they're okay!"

Right on time, Tai and Cho made it to their location. Matt, Sora, and Joe were there. But that was it. "Tai!" The three cheered.

"Where's T.K.?" He asked.

As if on cue, T.K. and Pegasusmon fell with a crash right next to them. "There he is." Joe said.

"T.K.!" Matt ran over to his seemingly lifeless body. "What were you thinking? Are you okay?"

T.K. rolled over to get a look at his brother. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot up his shoulder, making him squeeze it to ease it. "My shoulder." He said through gritted teeth.

"Just hold on, okay?" He told him. "Joe! We need you!"

"Patamon's pretty hurt too." Sora said, carrying the hurt Digimon in her arms.

"I'm on it." Joe said, taking out his doctor kit. "Just leave it to me. But I need someone to do something for me."

"I'll do it." Cho volunteered.

"Me too." Sora said.

"I need you to go to my apartment and check on Connie." He said. "I don't want her to be alone for long."

"We're on it." Sora nodded before she and Cho took off.

Suddenly, there was a light rumble that got more and more violent as the ground opened up between them. "Oh boy! What now?" Joe asked.

As if on cue, Digmon came out before reverting back to Armadillomon. Following him were Cody, Izzy, Mimi, and Yolei. "We finally found you guys!" Cody said.

"Check this out." Izzy showed his watch to everyone and pressed a button, causing a hologram to appear in the center. It was of a blue screen until he pressed it, showing video clips of the Digimon running around. "I have come to the conclusion that only Digimon that didn't come with digivices are under some sort of control." He touched it again to show a close up of the dark hole. "This…thing in the sky seems to be dispensing some sort of darkness onto them. So, it's almost the exact opposite of a black hole."

"And…" Everyone turned their attention to T.K. who was getting his arm wrapped up. "As you can see, the Dark Hole has a strong defense system going on."

Izzy nodded. "Some members of my team brought it to my attention that evacuation is almost impossible since Digimon have destroyed the harbors and airports."

"They're getting out of hand." Mimi spoke up. "What do we do?"

Tai shook his head. "We don't decide anything until the others are here. Who are we missing?"

"Kari, Ken, Davis, and Sora." Yolei told him.

"Just great." Tai said with his fists balled up. "I need to find Kari and see if she's okay. It's too dangerous for her to be alone."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Very noble big brother of you, but she's an adult now. She can take care of herself."

Tai turned towards him with threatening eyes. "She's pregnant." Everyone gasped, so he said again to everyone else "She's pregnant. We have to find her and the others."

"Leave it to me." Izzy volunteered. "Kabuterimon and I…"

"No, I'll do it." Yolei said. "You need to stay with Tai and think of a plan, and I need to find my husband. "Aquilamon and I will find them in no time." Right on time, Aquilamon dove out of the sky and onto the ground.

"You called?" He asked as Yolei got on.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Mushroomon was still wreaking havoc in the school as he threw Davis into the science room. He struggled to sit himself up. "Ow…" He said, rubbing the back of his head. Mushroomon was fast. He noticed that when he crashed into the room.

"Where are you…?" Mushroomon growled. He scanned the whole room, but Davis is nowhere to be found. "Where are you?!" He yelled.

Davis, at the time, was behind the teacher's desk. He covered his mouth as he heard footsteps coming closer and closer. Closer. Closer. In his ears. Davis's heart was well in his ears by then. That is, until they started going away. Farther. Farther. Farther away. But he still heard them. Davis took a peak to see where he was. At the moment, Mushroomon was tossing desks over on the other side of the room, giving Davis the perfect opportunity to escape.

He bolted out of the room and down the hallways, into the gym where Ken and Heidi were. "I did it!" He cheered, shutting the doors and shoving a broomstick through it. "I managed to escape!"

"Great." Ken nodded. "And I just contacted Yolei. She's on her way with Aquilamon right now." He looked down at Keanu who was squirming about. Pretty soon, he started sobbing. "Uh oh. Someone's fussy!"

Heidi stepped up. "If you want, I can watch the baby while you save the world."

"You mean it?"

She nodded. "I love kids. That's why I work with them!" She opened her arms to hold him.

Ken looked over at Davis with a nod. "Good with kids, huh?" Davis asked as Ken handed the baby over. "Even teenagers?"

She giggled as she played around with Keanu. "I sure hope so. I have a fourteen-year-old son at home!"

His eyes widened. "That's cool! I have one too! Want to see a picture? He kind of has his dad's looks." Davis started fishing for his wallet.

"No time." Ken said seconds before there was a knock on the back door. "That must be Yolei."

And it was. Yolei nearly threw the doors open and ran towards her husband, giving him the biggest hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!" She said. "Where's Keanu?"

"Right here." Heidi said, presenting the baby. "Hi, I'm Heidi."

Yolei smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Heidi. I'm Yolei."

"Heidi offered to take care of the baby while we're out." Ken explained. "I just hope they'll be safe here."

"That reminds me." Yolei said. "You had a Mushroomon destroying your office. Don't worry, though. Me and Aquilamon took care of it."

Davis beamed. "Then they should be safe here! That's awesome!"

"Then, let's go." Ken said. "There's the rest of the city to worry about." Then to Heidi, he said. "Thanks again for watching Keanu." He set the diaper bag down next to her.

"No problem. Do whatever it takes." She said.

()()

"Connie?" Sora called. "Are you home?"

"Connie?" Cho called.

"We're in here." Someone called from the master bedroom.

Sora and Cho exchanged a glance. "We?" They both questioned before entering the room.

Sora gasped when she found out that Connie wasn't alone. "Yoko, you're here!" She exclaimed excitedly. "T.K. will be so happy to see you!"

Yoko nodded. "I couldn't just sit back and watch Tokyo get destroyed. I had to come back as soon as I could."

Cho raised an eyebrow. "So, um, you're T.K.'s wife, Yoko?" She nodded. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Cho, Tai's wife."

"It's nice to meet you!" Yoko gave her a handshake. But much to Cho's surprise, the grip was very firm!

"Now that we've all introduced each other," Connie said, "let's get out of here!"

As if on cue, there was another knock on the door. "Sora? Cho?"

The women turned towards the door cautiously. "Uh…" Sora looked around to think. "Uh…Digi Digi!"

"Mon Mon!" The voice said.

Sora gave a sigh, and to everyone else, she said "They're our friends."

"The door's open!" Connie called.

Finally, the door opened revealing Yolei, Ken, and Davis along with Kari and Michio. "I have everyone else with me!" Yolei said.

"Good." Sora said. "Now, let's go to the others and think of a plan."

"Wait a minute." Davis said. "First, we have to get everyone to safety before we do anything."

Yolei smirked. "Someone's thinking for once."

Davis nodded. "A lot has changed in twenty-five years." Then to the others, he said "We just got back from the gym at the school. It's perfectly safe. We can use that as a shelter."

"Good idea." Sora said.

"But would it hold everyone?" Kari asked. "There are a lot of people in Odaiba."

"When I came in, a lot of people have already evacuated." Yoko said.

"Tai and I must've been the unlucky ones stuck in traffic." Cho said. "I should've known something was wrong when we're at a standstill trying to go to the grocery store."

"I'm sure there are many places potential shelters could be," Ken said, "but we have to focus on this one for now."

Connie rolled her wheelchair forward. "I volunteer! Us DigiParents will protect the people while the DigiDestined protects the world!"

"Very nice!" Yolei said. "I love the name!"

"I love the idea!" Davis chimed in. "Okay, so who are we missing?"

Right on time, the door opened again. It was Terri Hida, coming in with her laptop. "There you all are!" She said. "There are giant Digimon just right outside of the apartment. I don't know whether or not if we should run…"

"Calm down, Terri." Connie said. "They're our friends."

"So we're all here!" Davis said. "Great! Now, we can get this started. Terri and Connie, you guys go down to the gym. Heidi will be there to help you set things up. Michio, Cho, and Yoko, since you're more athletic, your jobs are to go find anyone that's still outside and bring them to the shelter. Any questions?" Michio opened his mouth to say something, but Davis interrupted. "Great! Let's go!"

And with that, everyone left the apartment and went their separate ways. Minutes later, the DigiDestined were reunited at last. Some were already fighting off the Digimon. "We're here, Tai!" Sora called.

"Yeah, what's the plan?" Davis asked.

Tai looked up at the hole. "We're trying to find out what that thing is and where it's coming from. Hopefully, it's just over Tokyo. Davis, call your friend in America, see if this is going on in more than one place, and try to find out what they're doing."

"On it!" Davis pulled out his cellphone and started dialing.

()()

Meanwhile, in America, things were heating up. More specifically, things were heating up in Colorado. Even more specifically, Willis's bedroom. He rolled around violently in his bed, pressing feverishly on a pair of lips. His hands were caressing her chocolate colored skin as she kissed back. Finally, he pulled away, kissing her jaw line and down her neck. Willis pulled off her shirt as she unhooked her bra. The article of clothes went flying along with a few more.

Breathing became harder, there was tugging and pulling, gropes and touches. Then, they got a little more intimate as things really began to get physical. Right in the middle of things, the phone started to ring.

Finally, things came to stop just as the phone began to ring again. "Aren't you going to answer that?" She asked.

Willis continued to kiss her when it rang again. "I guess you're right." He picked up his cellphone and saw that Davis was calling. "Hello?"

"Hey, Willis! Sorry to call at the wrong time. Were you sleeping?" He asked.

Willis glanced over at his girlfriend with a smirk. "I guess you can say that."

"Sorry again! Listen, we're having an issue here in Tokyo. Is there a black hole over your town?"

He sat up with a sigh. And that got his girlfriend worried as she sat up and covered herself with the covers. "Yes, there is."

"We believe it's making the Digimon go crazy. What's going on in America?"

Willis sighed again. His girlfriend gave him another worried look. "Is it…" she finally uttered "the Digimon?"

He turned towards her. "Coco…" He held his hand and kissed it. "It's going to be okay. I promise."

Willis knew why she was so upset. It was just earlier today that he found her running. Everyone was. But he didn't know what from. Willis just went about his day walking one way while everyone was running for their lives. By instinct, he knew he should stop walking, but he didn't even know what was going on. So he decided to stop and ask.

He reached out for someone who happened to be the lady he will spend the rest of the evening with. "Excuse me." He said. "But why are you running?"

She stopped. "Am I running? I haven't even noticed." She tried to run again, but Willis had a grip on her shoulder.

"But everyone's running." He said. "What does a pretty lady like you have to be scared about?"

She stopped, looking at her current outfit. She only had on red and white running shoes, red shorts, and a white tank top with her blue sports bra straps exposed. Maybe she was self-consciously trying to run. "You really think I'm pretty? Even like this?"

He nodded. "Especially like this. You're showing your natural beauty."

She blinked, playing with her coily hair. "Who…? Who are you?"

He took out his digivice. "I'm a DigiDestined. My name is Willis. And you are?"

The woman hesitated. She didn't have to talk to him. She could just run. She didn't know him, what did it matter? But she couldn't leave him there now that she knows his name. "I'm Chokleti."

"Well, that's a beautiful name." Willis said, even though he didn't understand it. "As beautiful as you."

"It's weird, I know. But that's who I am. And… You really think I'm beautiful?" She shook her head. "No, I'm just repeating myself. I have to go." Chokleti turned to leave, but Willis's hand stopped her at the shoulder.

"Chokleti," Willis said, "please, tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help. After all," he took out his digivice again, "I _am_ a DigiDestined."

"If you say so." She sighed. "My father gave me a Digimon a few months ago. He gave me Kokomon because he wanted to patch things up. We didn't have the best relationship as you can see." She crossed her arms. "He said it matched me perfectly. Chokleti and Kokomon."

Willis nodded. Chokleti and Kokomon did share that chocolate appearance. Maybe she was named after it just like Kokomon was.

"My father eventually passed, and right after his funeral, Kokomon started going crazy."

"And it's like he didn't want to patch anything up at all." Willis finished.

"I feel so stupid." She balled her fists and looked down with her eyes sewn shut. She tried her best not to cry but the tears managed to fall anyway.

"You're not stupid."

"You don't know that."

"But I do."

"You don't know me."

"I don't have to." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Listen, I know you may think your father doesn't love you, but he does. He's your father. You're his daughter. And with Kokomon, well, that stuff's happening all over the place with everyone's Digimon. It's just a coincidence."

She didn't say anything.

"I may not be able to figure everything out with the Digimon at the moment, but I can help you get your mind off of things." She still didn't say anything. Willis moved his hand from her shoulder to her back in a supporting manner. "Chokleti…"

"Coco." She smiled and held the hand that was supporting her. "Call me Coco."

Willis smiled. "Well, that's pretty! Okay." He gave her a squeeze. "Coco…"

And after a nice dinner, dancing, and a trip to the moon, Coco and Willis were now staring at each other in his bed with total chaos going around the world. That is, until Davis called. "Willis, are you still there? What's going on in America?" He asked again.

"Let me stream it to you." Willis told him. "They're reporting the news as we speak. I think they're planning to throw a missile into the hole, but what good does that do? Nobody even knows where it came from and what it's made out of."

"Well, try to gather the American DigiDestined and think of a plan. We have Izzy here working on the other stuff."

Willis sighed. "Alright." He said. "I'll get on that in the morning."

"Okay." Davis said. "And try to get some rest. You sound pretty tired!"

"You're right." Willis laughed. "I'll talk to you later." He hung up and looked over at Coco who was still concerned.

"Is everything okay?" She asked.

"Don't you worry about it. Remember, tonight is all about us." He slid on his boxers and headed to the kitchen. Coco lied back onto the pillow and rested until he came back with two champagne glasses and a bottle of chardonnay. "Tonight belongs to us."

"I'll drink to that!"

* * *

Trivia: It was written in summer and epically edited during the fall.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: This story is taking longer than I thought.

* * *

Chapter 12

"Here we are in the depths of the Digital World." Connor kept his camera rolling as he scanned through the scene. "Everyone's tired and scared. We just lost Sam to an evil Digimon, our parents aren't here, and we're kind of hungry too."

Kim giggled, making everyone stare at her. "What can possibly be so funny?" Aika asked, obviously not amused. "My brother is in the hands of… What was his name again?"

"NeoDevimon." Hitomi answered.

"Right." She continued. "And you have the courage to laugh?"

"Calm down, Aika." Poromon squeaked.

Kim nodded. "I do." She said.

"Well, stop."

"No." Kim crossed her arms. "I'm sick of you telling me what to do! My laughter shouldn't be ruled by you!"

"I'm your camp leader! If I want you to stop laughing, stop laughing!"

"Your leadership ended at camp!"

Aika unfurled her fists and slapped her cheek. "I'm tired of you always arguing with me!"

"Hey!" Yokomon huffed when everyone else gasped.

Kim's eyes widened as she nursed her cheek. It was so unlike her to slap someone. It also wasn't unlike Kim to stand there and take it, so she shoved her. Then, the two shared a dance of hair pulling, slapping, and clawing.

Yokomon and Poromon started bouncing about. "Come on!" They said. "Don't fight! We're friends!"

Josh, Connor, and Makoto stared with wide eyes. "Break it up!" Yukio and Shoji said, about to pull them apart, but Josh and Makoto held them back.

"Are you getting this?" Makoto whispered to Connor.

He nodded. "Uh huh."

"Alright, break it up!" Daisuke said, getting in between them. "We're not going to solve anything by fighting. We're not going to find anyone by fighting. And we're not going to beat NeoDevimon by fighting each other!"

"Then what are we going to do, Mr. Leader?" Kim asked.

"Well, that's obvious." Aika said. "We're going to find Sam first."

Eriko stepped forward. "That's wrong. I believe we should go find out how to use these crests." She said. "I mean, NeoDevimon is obviously at the ultimate level, so we should be at his level to beat him."

Hitomi nodded in agreement. "Then it's settled!" Mel said with much enthusiasm. Then he turned to Daisuke. "Right?"

He nodded. "So, now we have to go to Gennai and ask him how it works since our parents aren't here. Let's do it!"

"Or…" Tanemon said. "We can turn around and reunite with Sam!" Everyone turned in confusion only to see Sam and Minomon standing there.

"Sam!" Everyone exclaimed.

He smiled. "Hi, everyone." He greeted with a wave. Even if his eyes were on the group, his mind was on the eleven crests around their necks.

"What happened?" Eriko asked. "How'd you escape?"

Sam shrugged. "Oh, you know…" He trailed off. "Anyway, before I left, NeoDevimon said something about the crests."

"What about them?" Hitomi asked.

He looked around to make sure no one could hear him. "He said that it will only work if one person holds them all. And since, NeoDevimon kidnapped me, I must be important enough to hold them all."

The group looked at each other and back at Sam. "That doesn't sound right." Mel said. "From my father's stories, they all kept their crests to themselves."

"Well, fine." Sam crossed his arms. "If you're not going to hand them over, I'm just going to have to take it from you." He took out his digivice. "Who's up first?"

"Minomon digivolve to… Wormmon!"

"Come on, Sam." Makoto said, obviously not amused with his arms crossed. "You're not going to take the crests from any of us. We don't need a dramatic showcase. If I wanted one, I would've stayed with my mom."

"So you're first?" Sam asked. "Or are you scared that I'll win?"

Makoto turned his nonchalant demeanor into an aggressive one. "Yeah, I'll take you on. Only so you could shut up!" He took out his digivice. "Let's go, Tanemon!"

"Tanemon digivolve to… Palmon!" She digivolved. "You need to be grounded! Poison Ivy!"

"Silk Thread!" Wormmon shot out some silk, stopping the vines in mid air.

"Are we really doing this?" Makoto asked as the two Digimon kept fighting. "This is ridiculous!"

Sam yelled "I need the crests!"

As the two continued fighting, Hitomi was busy doing some research. Eventually, she stopped and tapped Aika's shoulder. "According to this," she told her, "Gennai's not too far from here."

Aika took a look at her computer. "Good work!"

Daisuke took a look from the other side. "Okay, you and Eriko take Shoji and Yukio to go find him. Get some answers and come back here."

"Great! An adventure!" Motimon cheered before the others began to leave.

Daisuke watched them go before turning back to the battle. "Okay, Sam. You want a fight? We'll give you one! Go, DemiVeemon! Digivolve!"

"DemiVeemon digivolve to… Veemon!" Then, just as quickly, he performed his first move. "V-head butt!"

Meanwhile, the other four raced to see Gennai as they managed to get their way through the forest. They stopped when they came across a lake. "What now?" Eriko asked.

"According to the map, he's under there." Hitomi told her.

"Just great. I can't swim."

"Me either." Shoji pouted.

"I can!" Yukio said, taking off his shoes and shirt.

"Wait, Yukio!" Hitomi said. "You don't know if the water's safe or how deep it is or…!" Before the next thought came up, Yukio already made a huge splash in the water.

Just as quickly, he popped his head out of the water. "It's cold!" He yelled. As if that were the cue, the water actually started opening up! Yukio ended up falling in and landing on a flight of stairs, still shivering from the cold water.

Once the water was fully separated, the flight of stairs was visible along with something else at the end. The others ran down the stairs to meet up with the boy. "Are you okay, Yukio?" Koromon asked.

He sneezed in response. "It's…really cold!"

"Yukio, we can't risk anymore impulsive behavior, okay?" Hitomi asked.

"W…what's im…im…impulsive m…mean?"

"Never mind."

"What is all of the noise about?" A voice called out from the distance. The kids turned around only to see, none other than, Gennai! "And what happened to him?" He pointed to Yukio who sneezed again.

"He tried to swim to your place." Eriko explained.

Gennai laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised. Your father had that sort of impulsive behavior too. Come on, let's get you dried off."

"We also came to ask you about the crests." Eriko said as they started their walk inside. "How do we use them? What makes them glow? How come some don't glow at all? How come…?"

"Please, Eriko," Gennai laughed, "save your questions for when we actually get inside!"

"But I have one more question. Where _is_ inside?"

"Over there." He pointed forward to his nicely placed house. The kids gasped as they were taken inside. The garden was huge along with the pond he had.

"It's beautiful." Shoji said looking around at all of the trees and nicely placed rocks. "It's like Great Grandma's place!"

"I assume so." Gennai nodded. "Now, let's go inside." He led them into the house just in time for the water to return to its down position. The kids gasped as the fish swam by. Finally, Hitomi was the first to pull her head away from the window.

"Gennai, we need to know about these crests. Is there a certain code we have to crack to unlock the powers of the crests?" She asked.

He sat down at the table in the center of the room followed by everyone else. "To unlock powers, you must first unlock yourselves. You see, your crests hold a special trait that only you and your parents have."

"But what about mine?" Eriko asked, taking her crest and tag from around her neck. "Dad never had a crest. How come I have this one?"

Gennai took it from her and examined it. "This is a new one for sure!" He said. Then, he frowned. "There's something wrong with this."

The kids leaned in. "What?"

"This crest…it's not real."

"What?!" They all exclaimed.

"So I'm never going to digivolve to ultimate?" Upamon frowned.

"No fair." Eriko pouted, crossing her arms in obvious disappointment. "Of all the crests, mine had to be the fake."

"What about mine?" Hitomi handed it to him.

Shoji and Yukio passed their crests down as well. "Try ours too." Shoji said.

Gennai carefully studied the three crests. "This is odd…" He said, taking a closer look. "None of these are real."

"How is that even possible?" Hitomi asked. "You said that our parents activated them again. We saw the lights."

Gennai frowned at the crests before him. "I know. I also saw the lights. My theory is that they only gave off enough energy to create the fake crests. This must be only a small part of their power."

"Gennai," Eriko said, "you said that the original eight gave the energy back a few years after they got them. How come they couldn't give off their full energy this time?"

He laughed. "Give them a break, Eriko! It has been 27 years, several children later, and they're tired from worrying about you kids."

"Right." Eriko said.

"Well," Gennai quickly added, "it is just a theory. I also think someone's behind all of this just to throw everyone off."

Shoji stood up. "Then let's go tell the others that NeoDevimon's no good!"

"He's behind this mess, totally!" Yukio added.

Hitomi and Eriko gave a nod in agreement. "Let's go!"

"Be careful, DigiDestined." Gennai said. "I have no idea what NeoDevimon's motives are, but they can't be good."

()()

"Got it!" Sam cheered as he managed to get Makoto's crest from around his neck. At the time, his body was passed out on the ground next to Palmon.

"That's the last crest you're going to take!" Veemon told him.

"Yeah!" Daisuke said. "Take us on next!"

Sam looked up at his newly evolved Stingmon.

"And you can't throw rocks to knock us out either. This has to be a good clean fight. What you did to Makoto and Palmon was just wrong!"

Sam didn't say anything.

"Let's make this interesting while we're here." Daisuke said. "If you give back the crest now, we won't fight. But if you don't, I'll throw you into a tree while the Digimon battle!"

He frowned. "You wouldn't dare."

"I can't really hit you only because you're so short that I wouldn't be able to reach you. So that's the next best thing."

Sam balled up his fists. "There's no way you'll throw me in a tree! But, I am willing to battle at your level."

"No way!" Everyone turned over to Kim. "How about you pick on someone relatively your size? Let's go, Birdramon!"

Sam didn't say anything as Kim's Digimon digivolved.

"What is it? Cat got your tongue? Or are you just scared you'll get beat by a girl?"

Sam frowned. "Stingmon, take care of Birdramon, will you?" And without another word, the two Digimon went into a head on clash.

"Go, Josh!" Aika shouted. "While he's distracted!"

Sam turned around and saw Josh charging for him at full speed. Before he could jump out of the way, or react for that matter, Josh tackled him down into the ground. "Would you get off of me?" Sam shouted.

Josh grabbed both of the crests from him. "If you want to play games, Sam, we'll play. But leave our Digimon out of it!"

"Your Digimon are worthless and need to be taught a lesson!"

"It's like I said." Josh said. "If you want to play, let's play."

Sam frowned but it didn't shake Josh at all as he frowned back. Finally, Sam broke the staring contest when he gasped and pointed above them. "Look up there!"

"I'm not falling for it." He stood up anyway.

"What is that?" Daisuke asked as everyone paid attention to what was on top. They all stared in fright as they saw NeoDevimon flying towards them. "Everyone stay quiet. Maybe he won't hear us."

The children and Digimon watched as NeoDevimon slowly made his way past the bunch. "Where is he going?" Mel asked. Then he gasped. "He's probably making his way towards Eriko and the others!"

"Oh no!" Kim exclaimed. "Shoji!" The two of them took off running.

"Guys! You don't know what you're getting yourselves into!" Daisuke shouted.

"I'm going too." Josh said and followed them.

Daisuke stomped his foot. "Great. Now we have over half of our team missing."

"That's not the objective right now." Connor told him. "Josh has some of the crests. We have to keep Sam here."

"What better way to do that than another battle?" Patamon said. "Let me give it a go!"

"No!" Aika stepped in front of them. "No more fighting!"

"But, Aika, why not?"

Instead of Connor getting an answer right away, Aika held his hands. "Please, no more fighting. He's my brother."

"And he's no good!" Daisuke said. "Look at what he did to Makoto. He's trying to take our crest to help the enemy!"

Sam smiled before charging towards them and snapping the crests from their necks. "OW!" The three cried.

"Try and stop me!" Sam laughed as he jumped into Stingmon's arms. "Let's get out of here!"

"After him!" Daisuke shouted right when Makoto woke up.

"Let's go!" Makoto said.

"Hawkmon digivolve to…Aquilamon!"

"Patamon digivolve to…Angemon!"

"Come with us." Aika told Makoto and Daisuke. "ExVeemon and Togemon can't fly."

They nodded and Makoto jumped into Angemon's arms and Daisuke jumped onto Aquilamon's back. "Let's go get our crests back!"

* * *

Trivia: I believe that Kim's a nervous laugher.

A/N: I hope you like it!


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: Please review!

* * *

Chapter 13

Izzy typed furiously at his laptop, but nothing was coming up. "Error…" He said when the error sign popped up. He typed some more. "Error…" And again, "Error…"

"Nothing's getting through?" Tai asked him. Izzy shook his head in response. "These Digimon are getting in the way of everything!"

"Where did these things come from?" Cody asked. "If we find out where they're from, we would at least know if these are actually real Digimon."

"Do you really think fake Digimon will do this must damage?" Joe asked.

Cody nodded. "Maybe there's a malfunction in their programming."

"Good idea!" Davis said, slapping his back.

"Look there!" Everyone looked as Kari pointed to a girl. It was the cheerleader, Dawn, running for her life.

"Hey!" Tai called to her. "Miss! Where did you get your Digimon?"

She stopped. "My dad got it for me. I think the place is called…Kawada's or something."

"Great!" Davis said, taking out his phone. "I'll message Willis."

Tai nodded. "You do that. Izzy, let's go check it out."

"We'll go too." Agumon said.

"Yeah." Tentomon agreed. And the four set off with their journey to find the place.

"Great." Matt rolled his eyes. "And what are we supposed to do in the meantime?"

Mimi shrugged as Davis flipped through his phone. "Willis sent me a stream of the news in America. It's not very clear, but it said something about them launching a missile at the hole."

"Will attacking it really work?" T.K. asked.

"Then, let's do it!" Veemon said.

Davis nodded to him. "There's also an article that explains more, but I can't read English."

"Don't you have automatic translate?" Ken asked him.

"I don't know how to turn that on." He said. "Nick usually handles those kinds of worldly affairs."

Mimi let out a huff and stuck out a hand. "You would never survive in New York." Davis rubbed the back of his neck and handed his phone over. She scanned the article before letting out a gasp. "People worldwide are going to capture the Digimon and put them down!"

"What?!" Everyone turned and asked.

Mimi nodded. "It started in America and they're doing it in Germany too."

"We can't just sit here now! We have to do something!" Matt pounded his fist to his hand.

"Let me see one of them." Joe said. "Maybe the Digimon are sick."

"I'll help." Cody volunteered.

()()

"I'm getting too old for this." Michael Washington complained. After twenty-five years, he has changed a lot! His once skinny teenaged frame gained a lot of muscle, his once flawless face now has a scar coming from the bottom of his left eye, and his once bare skin now has a tattoo on his right shoulder of an anchor. The only thing that didn't change was his hair, blonde and long as always.

"Seadramon, let's ride!" Being a part of the marines has done a lot for him as well as his Digimon. The mighty sea dragon Digimon splashed through the water ways and de-digivolved back to Betamon. Both of them hopped into the jeep and rode off. "I got a call from this guy named, Willis. He says we need to meet up."

"Who's Willis?" Betamon asked. "And why are we taking orders from him?"

"We're in war, Betamon." He told him. "We're from the same country, fighting against the same enemy."

"But the Digimon aren't our enemies. Everyone seems to believe that."

"But this time," Michael said, "this time, it's different."

The car ride was long and quiet. The two were really focused on their mission. After an hour or so of driving, Betamon decided to speak. "What are we going to do to these Digimon? We can't possibly take them all on alone."

"Don't doubt, Betamon." Michael told him. "We can't afford that anymore, remember? We couldn't afford it for fifteen years. Maybe even longer." He kept driving, thinking of a past love.

Lee Smith was her name. She was beautiful and young. She didn't have a penny to her name but she was rich. At first, Lee was just a band aid or cover up for his relationship with Mimi. He couldn't get her out of his mind when they broke up. The only reason he was with Lee is to tell everyone he was alright without her.

But he was wrong.

Michael was better off without Mimi. And he figured that out when Lee discovered his whole plan. She left that day and took all of her tender love and care with her. She took all of the sunshine Michael thought was fake with her. She took all of the happiness he thought was a lie with her. And then he was left with grief. Even if he knew it was only a matter of time until she found out, he thought he would be over it. But the grief now was different. Lee gave him her heart but she took it back before he could genuinely take it.

Michael woke up the next morning, drowning in himself, but he didn't show it. The only person that knew, or Digimon, was Betamon. He noticed each and every one of Michael's robotic movements. And for the next few months, he continued with them until he joined the US Marines. There, his heart would only have to be in one place, America.

But after a year in the marines, Michael got a letter from Lee. It didn't say much, but it read "Michael Jr." along with an attachment of a photo. It was of a baby with blonde hair and blue eyes. He knew for sure that the baby was his son. But the note said a little more. "I want you to know that the baby is healthy, and that he's being taken care of. I met a guy…" And he stopped reading. It didn't take long for Lee to move on.

And for the rest of that time, he didn't see his son. Michael believed he didn't need to. It was just him, Betamon, and Sweet Lady America. But he still can't help but to keep her picture nearby as he rode down the quiet, damaged highway. He skid to a stop in the middle of it when he saw a man and a woman on the side. Michael rolled his window down as he and Betamon kept their eyes on the couple.

"Are you the boy from Colorado?" He asked the man.

He nodded, showing him his digivice. "The name's Willis." He introduced. "And this is Coco, and my Digimon, Terriermon."

Michael nodded. "Well, come on in. We have worlds to save." He and Betamon kept a close eye on them as they slid to the back seats. Michael paid closer attention to Coco, staring her up and down. "Where's her digivice?"

"I don't have one." She said, giving him the don't-mess-with-me look.

"She's with me." Willis told him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "She's cool."

"We have to be careful around the Non-Destined." Michael said, starting the car again. "They could turn on us just like their Digimon did."

"Oh, I know."

The jeep finally regained motion down the rigid highway. "So where are we headed?"

"The nearest DigiCorp." Willis pulled out his cellphone and spoke into it. "GPS, on. Search: DigiCorp Headquarters."

"Searching…" The phone replied. "Searching… Searching…"

Michael gripped his steering wheel even harder when the word kept repeating. Finally, he barked "Can't that thing go any faster?"

"Not sure. I didn't have time to update it."

"Since when? 2010?" Michael asked. "What are we going to do at DigiCorp anyway?"

"DigiCorp, or Digital Corporation, is a business that specifies in Digi-human interactions. Since they're going crazy, DigiCorp is going to try to gather them and put them to sleep. And since we're not all in DigiWorld, we're talking thousands, maybe millions of Digimon never moving on."

Coco gasped. "You mean, we'll be haunted forever by evil Digimon?"

Willis nodded. Finally, his phone stopped its repetitive rant. "DigiCorp Headquarters unable to locate."

"Great!" Michael pounded the steering wheel.

"Let me try again." Willis said. "GPS: on. Search: DigiCorp Headquarters."

"I'll try mine." Coco said, getting out her phone. "GPS, search DigiCorp Headquarters."

"Searching…" Both phones said.

"Digimon Corporation Headquarters located in Washington DC. This is not your area. Would you like directions anyway?" Coco's phone asked while Willis's phone kept searching.

"Yes." She replied.

"Please repeat."

Coco looked over at Willis. "Turn your phone off." Willis clicked a button and exited out of the app. Then, Coco repeated "Yes."

"Here are the directions." It said, displaying a holographic map. "Please keep on south freeway."

()()

"Here it is!" Tai exclaimed once they came across the small building called Kawada's. He kicked down the door and took a closer look inside. "DigiDestined official business!" He flashed his badge around, but no one was around to see it. "The coast is clear. Spread out!"

Izzy raised an eyebrow. "Who are we? The Swat Team?"

"Well, you know what I mean!" Tai looked around. "Maybe there's some sort of device or something…"

Izzy flipped the light switch but nothing worked, so he got out a flashlight instead. The building was small. In fact, it was just the room. Izzy noticed the small waiting area with two chairs, a coffee table, and a thick book on top. Curious, he picked up the large tome and took a quick peek inside. It was a strange book that had a lot of information on Digimon. Each page had a picture of a Digimon, their types, their attacks, their appearance, and so forth. The last thing he wanted was for all of this information to get into the wrong hands, so Izzy put the book into his pocket.

"Hey, look at this!" Agumon called from behind the counter.

"How'd you get back there?" Tentomon asked.

Agumon pointed to his right. "There's a door just right there."

The others found the door before Tai opened it. "What'd you find, Agumon?"

Agumon handed the large log book to him. "Izzy, hand me your flashlight."

"What is it?" Izzy handed it to him.

Tai flipped open to a random page. "Dawn Ikezawa; match: DemiVeemon, time and date: 6:42 pm, December 26th." He read. "It's an appointment book."

"Look here." Tentomon said pointing to the cabinet behind them. "Since when did they even cabinets with wheels on them?"

The two blinked at each other in confusion. "Didn't they always have wheels?" Tai asked.

"But the question is: why would it have wheels?" Izzy asked, raising a thought. "I'll tell you why. So that it would be easy to get to what's behind it."

"In this case…" Tai pushed the cabinet out of the way to reveal an arrangement of purple and white lights. "…a portal?"

Izzy nodded. "Precisely."

"I smell Digimon." Agumon said, taking a whiff.

"Really?" Tai and Izzy asked.

"Through here?" Izzy asked before popping his head through it. Seconds later, he came out. "It is the Digital World."

"Great! Now, let's get the others and…" Before Tai could finish, there was a shriek coming from the door.

"What are you doing in my office?!" They all turned around to see a woman standing there, obviously not amused. She had her hands on her hips and stood firmly, waiting for an explanation.

"Uh…" Tai took out his digivice. "We're here on DigiDestined official business."

"And who gave you permission to search and destroy my place?"

"To be fair," Izzy said, "we haven't destroyed anything."

"Well, who gave you permission to trespass?"

Tai flashed his diplomat badge. "I did. A government official in charge of all relations between Earth and the Digital World. If this is your business, you're in a lot of trouble for what's going on in the city."

"This is my business," she said, "but it has nothing to do with the chaos."

"Then how come our Digimon haven't been affected?" Izzy asked, pointing to Tentomon and Agumon.

The woman shrugged. "I don't know. I just want you out of my place at once!"

"Wait, Tai!" Everyone turned towards Agumon. "Doesn't she look familiar?"

They turned to her again and took a closer look at her facial features. Long black hair, dark eyes, pale skin, and a scar along the right side of her jaw line. "I don't…know." Tai said.

The woman frowned some more.

"It's Noriko!" Tai finally concluded.

"Noriko?" Izzy questioned. "From twenty-five years ago? That Noriko?"

"The very same!" Agumon realized.

Noriko put her hands on her hips. "What of it?"

Tai and Izzy looked at each other and back at her. "You do know this whole thing is linked to this place, right?" Izzy asked, taking out the book he found. He started scanning over it again.

"And what makes you automatically assume such nonsense?"

"Where else would these people get the Digimon from?" Tai asked, getting impatient. "Obviously, there's something wrong with your inventory that are somehow reacting to the hole in the sky!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Noriko said. "I have nothing to do with the hole! It was there when I got here!"

Tai nodded. "You may have a point, but I'm still suspicious of this place." He said. "I don't even know if these Digimon are real. No one else in town have digivices."

"Can you even conceive in your mind the chaos that would happen if these people had digivices? They would make their Digimon digivolve willy-nilly for no good reason! I'm not up for creating billions of monsters."

Izzy looked up from the book. "Noriko," he said, "what exactly is the purpose of this business?"

Noriko sat down at the nearest chair, keeping her eyes on them. "I wanted to give people the chance us kids got when we were in the Digital World. All of those kids were upset because they didn't have Digimon. Maybe everyone else wanted one too. So I met up with a guy, and he helped me make this place. Now, I'm to blame for a random reaction due to weather change. I think the real fault is you, Mr. Researcher!" She pointed to Izzy.

"Hey, I'm working on it!" He defended.

"If you say so." Noriko tugged on her blazer.

"This argument is a waste of time!" Tai burst. "Now, what are these fake Digimon?"

"I'm telling you, they're real!" Noriko raised her voice. "Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe your digivices are protecting your Digimon from this thing?"

"I have." Izzy said, earning him a look from Tai.

"Damn it! There are lives in jeopardy right now!" Tai pounded a fist on the table. "Let's stop pointing fingers and find out how to fix this mess!"

"Agreed." Izzy said. "First of all, is this portal here really the Digital World?"

Noriko nodded. "It is."

"Then, the only person responsible would have to be the Digimon."

"Or…" Tai stated. "It could be her boss." The two turned towards her.

Noriko stood still. She didn't object, she didn't agree. She just sat there not saying a word with her lips a thin line. The guys just kept her eyes on her and vice versa. Suddenly, someone else opened the door. Noriko still didn't move a muscle as she knew who it was.

The guys looked up and saw a tall guy in a long, grey trench coat that covered him completely and matching fedora that hid his face and head. "Can we help you?" Tai finally spoke up.

They guy didn't say anything at first. He closed the door behind him and cleared his throat. "I am…Mr. Grey." He said with a deep voice that could rattle the walls. "And I am the owner of this business."

Agumon squinted. "I don't think you should trust him, Tai." He said.

Tentomon got into a fighting stance and spread out his ladybug wings. "He's trouble alright."

"What made you draw to that conclusion?" Izzy asked.

Agumon sniffed. "He's not human!" He took in a deep breath. "Pepper Breath!" He shot a fireball at Mr. Grey's fedora, knocking it off and burning it up.

Mr. Grey covered himself in defense before slowly dropping his arms. He laughed as Tai and Izzy gasped at his identity. "There's no use hiding it anymore!" He took off the coat as well.

"No, this can't be!" Noriko said, getting out of her seat. "This is a joke. You're a human."

"Noriko, he's not." Izzy told her.

"I just can't believe that he's here." Tai said. "I thought we beat you!"

* * *

Trivia: I believe that the DigiDestined don't speak English and that it's translated on TV so we can understand them. But Mimi understands the language since she's been in the US.

A/N: My question for you: What do you think about the technology here? Is it advanced enough? Too advanced?


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: I hope you're enjoying it!

* * *

Chapter 14

"I'm going to be grounded for this. I'm sure." Aika said as they flew across the sky, looking for Sam.

"At least if we're grounded, we'll be home." Daisuke told her.

DemiVeemon pouted. "I wish there was something I could do to help." He said. Daisuke patted his head in response.

"Do you see him?" Connor called over to them.

"No." Aika told them.

"Spiking Strike!" The four kids and their Digimon looked around before spikes were flying around like crazy.

"He's attacking us!" Daisuke said.

Aquilamon let out a holler before plummeting to the ground. "Aika! Daisuke!" Connor and Makoto called as they fell to the ground.

"Where's Sam?" Makoto asked. "I hear Stingmon but I don't see them."

"Spiking Strike!"

"Look out, Angemon!" Connor told him.

Angemon swerved about randomly as spikes flew again. Even if he looked like he was succeeding, a spike hit Angemon right in the wings. He let out a yell and began his drop. "Angemon, no!" The kids said before they hit the ground.

Sam's cackle rang through the forest as the four children slowly got up. "That Sam's a sneaky one!" Makoto said, being the first to stand up.

"Please, let me digivolve! I can take him on!" Tanemon said.

"The only way to beat that Champion is to go Ultimate." Daisuke said. "I hope the others made it to Gennai."

Meanwhile, Josh, Kim, and Mel were still making their way to the place, following NeoDevimon. The three stopped when they came across the lake. "What now?" Kim asked.

"One of us makes a swim for it." Josh said, taking off his shoes. "I'll go."

"Josh, I don't think that's a good idea." Mel said. "You don't know what's down there. Besides, if Gennai's place is down there, there's no way NeoDevimon's going down there." He pointed up to see NeoDevimon flying right above. Suddenly, he darted into the water.

And underneath the water, inside Gennai's house, the kids were getting ready to leave. "Let's tell the others." Eriko said.

They nodded, but before they could even open the door, NeoDevimon broke in, causing the water to rise. "He's flooding the place, everybody!" Yukio said. "Let's get out of here!"

"Are you forgetting that some of us can't swim?" Hitomi said.

"NeoDevimon, what brings you here?" Gennai asked.

"I can't let you kids get in the way of my plans. Now that you know the crests are fake, I can't let you leave." He answered.

"He's going to drown us?!" Hitomi shrieked.

"Drown?" The younger kids asked in fear.

"No one's drowning!" Hitomi said. "We just need a plan!"

"Here, let me…" Before Gennai could do anything, NeoDevimon tackled him into a wall, causing more water to come in. Then, he turned towards the kids and took out his claws.

"You're next." He said.

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Just that quickly, a harpoon blast was hitting NeoDevimon in the chest. "Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon swam in with another blast.

"It's Ikkakumon!" The kids cheered.

"Climb on." He said, giving another blast to NeoDevimon. "Hurry!"

The kids did as they were told and secured themselves by holding tightly.

"Let's go!" Ikkakumon got back into the water and swam to the surface as fast as he could. As soon as he popped out of the water, the kids gasped for air.

"You did it, Ikkakumon!" Mel cheered.

"Where are the others?" Hitomi and Eriko asked.

Kim smirked. "Glad to see you're all okay."

"The crests aren't real!" The four told them.

"What?!" They asked.

"We have to stop Sam." Josh said. "He's trying to take the crests as we speak!"

"Let's hurry." Hitomi looked at Motimon. "Is it possible you can digivolve to Kabuterimon?"

He nodded. "I've been waiting for this moment!" The small Digimon began to concentrate. "Motimon digivolve to…Tentomon!" Tentomon took in a few breaths. "I can do this! Tentomon digivolve to…Kabuterimon!"

"Good job!" Hitomi said, hopping aboard.

"I'll do it too." Yokomon said. "Yokomon digivolve to…Biyomon!" She took a deep breath. "Biyomon digivolve to…Birdramon!"

"Alright!" Kim cheered, climbing on. The others climbed onto the two Digimon. "Now, let's go see the others!"

()()

Tai and Izzy watched in horror as the Digimon proclaimed to be Mr. Grey revealed himself. "Noriko, how can you work for this guy?" Tai asked.

Noriko closed her eyes and balled her fists. "I…I didn't know." She said. "You were the one who kidnapped me!"

And in an instant, Mummymon stepped out of the shadows. "To be fair, I did help kidnap the children. It wasn't all me."

"Why?" Noriko asked. "Why would you trick me like that? I don't want to be a bad person!"

"What's your angle, Mummymon?" Izzy asked. "What are you doing to these Digimon?"

"I have done nothing. I was just told to make the world trust Digimon and create an uproar twenty-five years later." He chuckled. "Well, not specifically twenty-five years, but you get the idea. Just long enough for the humans to think they could trust us."

"But how did you survive?" Tai asked.

"To be fair, I wasn't an evil Digimon." He said. "I was misguided by love. But that's the past."

"I…I didn't want this to happen. I didn't want to be a part of your evil plot!" Noriko yelled. "I don't want to be a bad person! Not after what I did earlier."

"Noriko, you aren't to blame." Izzy told her. Then to Mummymon, he said "What do you plan on doing? Making the humans fear Digimon? Well, guess what. They're being put down as we speak!"

"What are a few Digimon compared to the billions waiting in the Digital World?" Mummymon cackled. "And our Goddess of Darkness is going to reign over both worlds!"

Tai gasped. "You mean, she's going to try to take over both worlds?" He looked over at Izzy.

"That means, she's doing what MaloMyotismon failed to do before." Izzy said. "But instead of taking over Earth from the Digital World, she's going to spread The Darkness here first."

Tai gritted his teeth. "That plan's brilliant enough to work." He pounded a fist in his hand. "But we're strong enough to wreck it!"

"Not while I'm around!" Mummymon said. "Snake Bandage!"

"Pepper Breath!"

"Super Shocker!"

Agumon and Tentomon shot their attacks at the flying bandages. "Good work, guys!" Tai encouraged them. "Izzy, contact the others and tell them to meet us here."

Izzy nodded and did what he was supposed to.

()()

"This is it." Willis said as they looked up at the huge DigiCorp building. He held Coco's hand firmly. "What's the plan, Mr. Marine Soldier?"

Michael continued to stare at the building. "I say we get in there." He said. "And then we take things down from the inside."

"Sounds good to me." Willis said.

"What's my job?" Coco asked. "I don't have a digivice or a Digimon, remember?"

"We're going to have to distract the others somehow." Michael said.

"But with Chokleti?" Willis asked. Then to her, he asked "Do you know any computer stuff?"

"No."

"Can you fight?"

"I don't know."

Willis looked back at Michael with a suspicious look. "Are you sure?"

He nodded, picking up Terriermon. "Hey!" The Digimon squealed as he handed him over to Coco.

"Now, whatever you do, don't let that Digimon out of your arms." Michael told her.

"I get it." Willis smiled. "They're going to try to take Terriermon away."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Terriermon asked. But it was ignored.

"I have one more question." Coco said. "When you do take down this place, would that affect the other DigiCorp buildings?"

Willis nodded. "Once we take this place down, all of DigiCorp will collapse throughout the world. This is the head building."

"Very convenient." Michael said. "Let's go already. The faster we do this, the faster I can get into the Digital World."

And with that, both of them kicked the door down. The fight in America was about to begin.

()()

"Mummymon?" The DigiDestined asked once they entered Kawada's. The Digimon just smiled back at them.

"He's the reason this is happening!" Tai told them.

"Well, I'm not going to stand here and invite him to brunch!" Matt said before turning to Gabumon. "Ready, Gabumon?"

Gabumon nodded. "Howling Blaster!"

"Snake Bandage!"

"While he's distracted!" Izzy called to the others. "There's a portal to the Digital World!"

"Oh, no you don't!" Mummymon said, taking a device out of his pocket. It was a simple device with only a switch. "Don't think we didn't prepare for this!" He flipped the switch, causing the portal to disappear.

"You fool!" Tai raged. "You just trapped yourself in here as well!"

"Aren't you familiar with the phrase 'taking one for the team'?" He said, putting his coat and hat back on.

Mimi sighed heavily. "We were so close!" Then she stepped up to Mummymon. "Look here! I want my son and daughter back! Now you open that portal up now!"

Mummymon shook his head. "No can do." And with that, he crushed the device in his hand and dropped it on the floor. "Fight amongst yourselves now. I have to leave."

"Leave where?" Noriko asked. "You aren't going to leave me, are you?" But Mummymon didn't answer. He continued out the door.

Tai punched the nearest wall. "What are we going to do now? We can't just stay in here. Those kids need us!"

Kari shook her head. "Remember, this is their fight. We have to respect that."

"She's right." T.K. said. "Our job is probably here on Earth."

"We can't keep defeating these Digimon." Cody said. "We can't bring them back into the Digital World so if they die, they'll just haunt us forever."

Tai rubbed his chin. "Mimi, contact your friend in America. Maybe they have a gate we can somehow get to. Izzy, your job is to fix that thing Mummymon broke."

Izzy picked up the broken pieces and examined them. Surely, they weren't too crushed. "I can do that." He said.

"And I'll call Michael." Mimi said, taking out her cellphone.

()()

Meanwhile, outside of Kawada's, Mummymon hurried down the street in his disguise. "The Goddess of Darkness is not going to be happy about this." He said.

Little did he know, she was already watching what was happening. "The portals went under emergency shut down." She said to herself. "It's those DigiDestined. Oh, how I hate them!" She shouted. "SkullMeramon! I finally have a job for you!"

The flaming Digimon came into the room, bringing the light from his flames with him. It wasn't much, but the Goddess could see him. That's all that mattered. "Yes, m'lady?" He knelt down to one knee.

"The Japanese DigiDestined are getting on my nerves. Fix it. Now." She commanded.

"With pleasure." SkullMeramon got up and headed to the closest rip in the dimensions.

"Now where are my others?" The Goddess shouted, summoning BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon. "Go with him and cause trouble. One of them is going to fix my portal system. Distract them all."

"Yes, Goddess of Darkness!" They both flew into the rip.

* * *

Trivia: Coco's appearance is my dream appearance. I'm growing out my curly hair and toning up!

A/N: Review and tell me what you think!


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: This is taking awhile. Sorry!

* * *

Chapter 15

Yukio was curled up with Koromon by a camp fire, staring at the dancing flames. The other kids gathered around it with glum expressions. Yukio watched the fire intensely as if it had all of the answers. "We'll get him." He told them.

Daisuke looked down at him. He could've asked "What do you know? You're just a kid" but what did Daisuke know? He's a kid too. Maybe Yukio was right. They'll catch him. But what were they going to do once he's caught? Steal the crests back of course. But what then? Sam will still be up to no good.

He stood up. "I don't think our focus should be on Sam." He said. "We need to get NeoDevimon."

"What about my brother?" Aika stood up. "We can't just…"

"I know." Daisuke interrupted. "I know."

She bit her tongue, not saying another word. Then, she sat back down. There was no point to argue with the goggle head. Her mom taught her that.

"What now?" Josh spoke up in a tiny voice.

"What else?" Kim asked. "We come up with a plan of attack."

"And since we're all here with the obvious exception, we can beat him, right?" Connor asked.

"Yeah!" Shoji and Yukio cheered.

Hitomi shook her head. "It would be that easy, but remember, he's at the Ultimate level. We don't have that power."

"I don't think we need it." Josh said, grabbing a bunch of twigs off of the ground. "It's like this." He picked up one. "If we hit him one at a time…" He snapped it in half. "We're powerless." Then, he grabbed three. "Even if some of us attack…" He snapped them effortlessly. "We're done for." Then he grabbed a handful. "But if we all attack at once, using all of our power…" He tried to break them again, but the twigs only bend. "…we can beat him." Then, all the twigs snapped at once, causing all of the kids to gasp. "Oops. That wasn't part of the demonstration."

Daisuke laughed. "You're too strong for your own good!"

"Let's just send Josh against NeoDevimon!" Mel joked.

"I don't see why not." Josh joked, flexing his biceps.

The other kids laughed with the exception of Aika. Kim gave her a poke. "Come on, Aika. If you don't laugh now, you'll be all stressed for the battle."

She shook her head. "But what happens when we defeat NeoDevimon? Will we get Sam back?"

Everyone nodded.

"Then it's settled!" Daisuke cheered. "I don't want to waste anymore time. Let's get our friend back!" Everyone cheered. "Let's do it!"

And with that, everyone cheered and helped put out the fire before setting off on their journey. The Digital World was very dark at night and they didn't have any light to guide them. "Maybe we should've brought the fire with us." Makoto said.

"Then, let's start it again!" Daisuke said and everyone cheered. They set up another fire and the older kids carefully took a stick out of the fire for torches. And finally, they set on their journey.

()()

"DigiDestined official business!" Willis and Michael shouted as soon as they got into the building.

Everyone that worked their stopped what they were doing and stared at the three. Finally, one man saw Coco with Terriermon and Betamon. "She's got Digimon!"

"Get them!" Another man shouted.

"Time to run!" Terriermon yelled.

And with that, Coco ran down the nearest hallway. And while everyone was chasing her, both of the men ran to the nearest elevator. Willis frantically pushed the down button. "Why are we going down?" Michael asked. "Shouldn't the boss be on the top?"

"But the heavy machinery should be at the bottom." He explained.

"You go with your Colorado logic, and I'll stick to my instinct." Michael pressed the up button.

"Fine by me." Willis said as both elevators opened at the same time. "We'll meet back here."

Right when they were both inside, the doors closed at the same time. As they headed their separate ways, Michaels's cellphone began to ring. The number, he saw, was foreign and familiar at the same time. So he picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Michael, hi!" Mimi's voice rang from the other line. "You remember me, right? It's Mimi!"

Michael's eyes widened, almost dropping the phone from his shaky hands. _Remember the mission_, he thought. _Remember the mission._ "Yes, I remember you, Mimi."

"Good! I was just wondering something. Can you get into the Digital World?"

"I've never tried." He answered truthfully. "Why do you ask?"

Mimi didn't say anything at first. "Well," she said followed by a lip smack, "you see, our children are in there and we can't get them out."

"What?" Michael nearly choked.

"We tried opening the gate on our end but it didn't work. I don't think we're wanted in."

Michael nearly fell against the wall, looking up. His breath fell short. How could this be happening?

"Michael?" Mimi asked. "Are you still there?"

Instead of an answer, Michael went right back to the subject. "You have to get in there. You have to keep trying. Those children need you!"

"Michael calm down. They have their Digimon with them. Why are you getting so worked up?" Mimi asked with concern. "Is everything okay?"

"No, it's not." He said. "Get your tech friend and your diplomat to help. Hurry up!"

"Why are you so worked up?" She asked, getting annoyed.

"Because he's my son."

On the other line, Mimi almost dropped the phone. She almost dropped her whole composure. "No…no he's…Makoto?"

"Yes. He's my son." Before she could deny it, he said. "That boy is my son. Don't deny it."

"No, I'm not denying the fact that he's my son. I know that for sure. But he's not your son." Mimi let out a laugh to hide the shock.

"Isn't it obvious?" He said. "Did you look at him?"

Mimi scoffed.

"This isn't a joke!"

"Calm down, Michael. Obviously you're just a bit stressed." She said.

Michael sighed as the elevator doors opened. "Yeah, I guess." A gang of guys in suits rushed his way. "But you don't understand. Makoto is mine." Michael didn't hesitate to throw and push them away as he headed to the big boss's office. "I was listening to you, remember? You were telling me how great that guy, Norio, was."

"You don't say…" Mimi thought about it. Not too far in the background, Izzy raised his eyebrow. What was she talking about?

"But I made the mistake." Michael continued. "I was over there just for the week. I was the one who begged for a good goodbye. And because of that, I just messed my own self up. I wanted you ever since."

Mimi smiled to herself as she leaned on the nearest wall. "To be honest, I'm glad it's with you instead of Norio. You know, he doesn't like commitment like you do."

"There's more."

Mimi blinked. Silent, she let him continue.

"Norio knew. I begged him to take care of you. But then I saw you on TV with Izzy. I don't really know what that was about."

"We're married now." She answered.

"Well, that makes sense." He looked down the many hallways. So far, no luck.

"But why didn't you come clean in the first place? You put me through all of that trouble for nothing?"

"Mimi, you were so happy with him…" Before he could finish, static began to interrupt the conversation.

"Hello?" Mimi asked. "Michael?"

"Hello?" Michael asked from the other line. "Mimi?" Frustrated, he threw the phone to the ground. "I hate technology!" Then, he smashed open the grand door to the boss's office. "This is your unlucky day!"

Meanwhile, Yolei and Izzy were looking at the piece of machinery. Yolei took a small screwdriver she used for her glasses and hooked some of the wires with the motherboard. "Let's just hope I remember how to do this." She hooked some things in and took them back out. "Looks like I still got it! Perfecto!" She flipped the switch but nothing happened.

"Maybe if you put that thing on it." Davis said, pointing to the cover.

"Yeah, maybe…" Yolei hooked it up. Then, she tried the switch again but then it sparked before dying again. "Great! Fantastic!" She said sarcastically.

"Let's go to my lab. Maybe we can recreate it." Izzy said.

"Can I go?" Cody asked.

"Sure, Cody." Izzy smiled.

Davis crossed his arms. "Now that _that's_ settled, what do we do?"

Before another thought could even come up, there was a sudden explosion of flames in the distance. Kari screamed from the shock as everyone else flinched. "What was that?" Matt finally asked when the noise died down.

"I smell an evil Digimon." Gabumon said.

"It's SkullMeramon!" Gatomon said.

As if on cue, SkullMeramon came from behind the building and stood before them. "You DigiDestined are mine!"

"In your dreams!" Matt shouted. "We'll finish you off just like we did when we were children!"

SkullMeramon didn't say anything at first. "I've also brought some guests." He presented LadyDevimon and Devidramon.

"This…can't be good…" T.K. said.

"We'll take them all at once." Ken said. "We're not afraid!"

"DigiDestined, take your pick!" Tai commanded.

()()

"This is it!" Willis said, looking upon the main machinery. "I knew it! I was right!" He looked around and saw no guards or tools around. "How can I destroy this with my bare hands?" He looked around again and gave a smirk. "I've always wanted to do this." With no regrets, Willis unzipped his pants and relieved himself all over the machines. Things started to spark and malfunction, causing an alarm to go off.

As the sirens blared, Michael stood face to face with the head of DigiCorp. "Get out of my office!" The boss said, the average guy in a suit.

"You're shutting this place down. The Digimon aren't going to die in your hands."

"And what if I refuse?"

Michael smirked, popping his knuckles. "Then you're going to have to answer to me." The boss gasped and pressed a button from under his desk.

The guards were running after Coco but they stopped when they heard sirens coming from the top and bottom floors. "The main machine is malfunctioning." One guy said.

"The boss is in trouble." A different one said.

"She still has Digimon." Another said.

"Well, what do we do?" The first one asked.

"Leave her." One of the other ones said. "She's not important. We have to protect the boss and the machine." And with that, they split, leaving Coco, Terriermon, and Betamon to sigh in relief.

"Willis needs me." Terriermon said, hopping out of Coco's arms and running off.

"And Michael may need me." Betamon said, doing the same.

"Wait for me!" Coco said, running after Terriermon.

As the adults faced the darkness in Japan and America, the eleven children were facing the Darkness in the Digital World. They stood in front of the Dark Castle with torches in hand. "Here we are." Daisuke said. "It ends here."

"Are you sure it'll work?" Eriko asked him.

Daisuke put a hand on her shoulder. "Doubt isn't affordable. We've come too far." He looked amongst the bunch. "Look at us. Makoto, you didn't want to listen to me before! Kim, you opened up a lot since we first met at camp. We're a team even more now than when we first started."

"And even if our crests aren't real," Hitomi said, "we still have love, knowledge, courage, friendship, and everything. Our team is just as good as our parents'."

"Maybe even better!" Kim joked.

Daisuke nodded. "Is everyone ready?" They nodded in response. "Let's do this." And with that, he dropped his torch down and everyone followed, watching the Castle burn up.

And, inside, the dark Digimon at the throne did not hesitate to take action. She stood up. "Is that fire?" She asked in deep rage. "And my Digimon are on Earth! Where is NeoDevimon?" The Goddess of Darkness rushed down the stairs and landed with a thud. "Where ever he is, NeoDevimon is fired! Now I have to take matters into my own hands."

Meanwhile, NeoDevimon arrived into the scene with Sam and Stingmon. "What are you children doing to the Dark Castle?" NeoDevimon asked them.

"Ruining things as always." Sam answered for them.

"Yeah, that's right!" Connor said. "We're also saving your life!"

"That's it." NeoDevimon raged. "I'm not going to have a bunch of children ruin my plans!"

"Too late."

Everyone turned around and saw the doors to the Dark Castle crash down. NeoDevimon immediately fell to his knees. The children and Digimon stared in fear at what was coming out. The smack of heels and the rattle of chains were ringing in the air. Then, the cause of the noise stepped forward into the light of the flames.

"Who…is that?" Mel asked, his voice shaking.

"The Goddess of Darkness." NeoDevimon said, sweat dripping from his face. "She has come."

"Goddess of Darkness?" They all asked at once.

Daisuke swallowed. "Our…new enemy."

* * *

Trivia: I kind of imagined Michael to look like Hoss Delgado from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy but without the canon hand thing.

A/N: What do you think of the plot twists?


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: There's so much writing involved!

* * *

Chapter 16

"Prodigious!" Izzy cheered, holding up the newly fixed device. "We managed to put it together! Now we need to see if it works."

Yolei nodded and took the device out of his hands. "Allow me." She said, but before she could flip the switch, she was interrupted by Cody.

"Wait. Maybe we should test this outside." He said.

"Good idea." Izzy said, getting out of his chair. "Let's go."

The three stepped outside only to find things darker than it already was. "Is it evening time already?" Yolei asked.

"Doubt it." Cody said. "It's only three pm."

"Look at that!" Izzy pointed to SkullMeramon, LadyDevimon, and Devidramon all tied up. "What happened?"

They turned around to see the DigiDestined standing cautiously away from the Digimon. "We got them." Matt answered. "But we didn't want to get rid of them or they'll haunt us forever like Wizardmon."

"Good thinking." Yolei told them. "It's a good thing we fixed this thing!" She took out the device and showed them.

"Great!" Mimi said. "Let's put them back in the Digital World!"

And with that, Yolei flipped the switch. And to their joy, it worked! The portal opened back up in Kawada's and stayed open long enough to throw the Digimon in. However, it started to get hazy before the humans could get in. "What's going on?" Sora asked.

Yolei smacked it a few times. "I think it's running out of batteries." Then, the device started to smoke. "Or maybe…it's not the batteries."

"Guys! Check this out!" Davis called out from outside. Everyone piled out of the small store and looked at what he was pointing to. "Bring back memories?"

The DigiDestined looked up at the huge screen they were on when they were battling Diaboromon all those years back. But instead of having their battle on the screen, it was the children. "My baby's a star!" Mimi cheered.

"Mimi, that's the real fight!" Davis said.

"They could get hurt!" Kari said.

Meanwhile, in the school gym, everyone was watching the battle on their computers and cellphones. "They're just kids." Terri said. "There's no way they can handle that sort of pressure."

"So were our husbands." Cho said. Michio cleared his throat at the inappropriate statement. "Oh, and wife." She corrected herself before continuing. "Anyway, they were just kids when they went into the Digital World. We have to trust our children."

Terri nodded. She couldn't help but to worry about her daughter. She even worried about her husband. But since the day she met him, she knew he was strong. Stronger than she was, even. Terri remembered when they first met; lost in the lobby of a community college. A guest lecturer was going to speak, and she didn't want to miss it. But Terri was finding herself in circles.

That's when Cody came up to her. "Are you lost too?" He asked.

She blushed. "I am. Are you attending the guest lecture?"

He nodded. "Yes, but I can't find the room. I'll ask someone."

"Good idea." Terri said. "I'll go with you so I don't get myself more lost!"

The both of them shared a laugh. "I'm Cody." He introduced.

"Hi, Cody. My name's Terri."

And from there, they haven't been apart. Eriko was a precious gift that came along the way. Just seeing her daughter on the screen without Cody there to explain it just made her uneasy. But it wasn't all bad. At least she had Connie there.

Connie gave a laugh. "Let's go, children! Show them whose boss!" Even with her thick, Cuban accent, barely fitting in, she found a reason to laugh.

If it wasn't for Joe, she wouldn't be here now. Connie would've grown up and stayed in Cuba, working in a grocery store just like when they first met.

She was getting ready to ring up his food at the time. "Hola." She greeted.

"Uh, hola." Joe greeted back, lacking confidence in his Spanish.

So she stopped using it and went to English. "You're not from here are you?"

Joe chuckled. "Was it that obvious? Well, I'm studying abroad for the summer. Cuba has a very nice medical program, I heard, and I wanted to check it out."

Connie smiled at him. "Well, I hope you enjoy your stay and get good grades."

"Thank you."

And then, the next day, he would come back pretending he forgot something. "Nice to see you again." She would greet every day for the next week. Finally, she asked "Would you like to come over to my place? You know, when you're not busy? I can help you with your Spanish and show you around Cuba."

Joe's face instantly lit up. "Yeah, that would be cool!"

And every night after his studies, Joe would go see her. Then, the two would do all sorts of things together; dancing, drinking, shopping, etc. But then, the day came when Joe had to go back home. He stood at the terminal for a minute, seeing if Connie would come and say goodbye. So far, she hasn't come.

"Sir, we're boarding now." The flight attendant said.

"Just one more minute." Joe told her. But once that passed, he said to himself "I should've known she wouldn't come. I thought she liked me, but I guess she just sees me as a friend."

"Joe!" Joe whipped around and saw Connie running for him. "I want to go with you." She said. "I don't want to be without you."

"Connie, I'm just glad I could see you this last time. But I don't have another ticket." He said.

"And I can't afford one." She said. "But you have my word. I'm going to go to Japan. Maybe not today, maybe not next year, but I'm going."

"Sir…" The flight attendant said.

Connie continued. "I'll miss you, Joe." Then she leaned in and kissed him. Joe's eyes went wide in shock before finally kissing back. It was actually his first kiss.

When they finally pulled away, Joe didn't know what to say. "Thank you." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll miss you too."

And as the days turned to years, Connie waited and kept going strong. Even now, when her family was out fighting, she was staying strong.

"How are you feeling?" Terri asked her. Every now and again, she had to ask. Joe asked her to.

"I'm fine. _Gracias_." She said before going back to the fight.

Finally, Heidi had to ask. "Is she okay?" She was curious as to why Connie was in a wheelchair.

Terri nodded. "She's been sick for a while now."

"She has? With what?" Heidi asked. "Is it serious?"

Terri nodded. "It's Cancer. But her son doesn't know about it yet."

Heidi gasped. "But…she looks so…so happy."

"And it's all for him." She pointed to Mel on the screen.

They all watched as the Goddess of Darkness finally stepped out of the dark shadows with enough light to see who she really was. The Digimon gasped as they fought the urge to bow down. "Who is it?" Daisuke asked.

"It's Lilithmon!" Gatomon clarified. "She's a Demon Lord Digimon. We have to watch out for her Nazar Nail attack because it kills anything it touches!"

"That's not the only thing you have to watch out for." Lilithmon said walking passed the children. They all cleared the way as she moved slowly and closer to NeoDevimon. "Care to explain?" She asked him. Sam scurried to the others just in time.

NeoDevimon kept his head low as he stuttered. "The ch-children…they went right passed me…"

"And now they're here." She finished for him. "Stand up." NeoDevimon hesitated before doing so. "It's a shame, really." Lilithmon faced the kids. "You see, I had a lot of faith in NeoDevimon. I liked his plans to distract you while I take over your worlds, but then he decided to let me down." She turned back to him and said with pulsing anger "I _hate_ being let down."

"I'm sorry, your highness. These kids are really tricky." He said in his defense.

"That's no excuse. I'm tired of excuses." She pulled him closer and cupped his chin in her hand. "And," she said lustfully, "I'm tired of you." Lilithmon took in a slow, deep breath.

"No, please! Don't do it!" NeoDevimon screamed and tried to escape, but Lilithmon had a firm grip on the back of his head with one hand and his chin in the other.

Lilithmon sighed "Phantom Pain." And from her breath came darkness into his body. She dropped him on the floor and watched him wriggle and writhe, smiling the whole time.

The children gasped as NeoDevimon screamed in pain. "What is he doing?" Yukio asked.

"Don't look." Josh covered his eyes.

"You either, Shoji." Kim covered his eyes then she closed them herself.

Finally, bits of dark data started to fly around. NeoDevimon howled in pain as his body slowly started to dissipate. Sam suddenly dropped to his knees. Aika saw this and picked him up. "Sam, are you okay?"

"Aika?" He blinked, finally sounding like his normal self.

"You're back!" She gave him a hug.

"What's going on?" He asked in fear of the scene going on.

Aika didn't answer.

Finally, NeoDevimon was gone. "Y…you monster!" Daisuke shouted.

"We…we can't…" Mel stuttered, his hands shaking. "We can't win. She's too strong. If only our parents…"

"No!" Daisuke said. "We don't need them. This is our fight alone."

"That's right." Kim said.

"We have to finish what we started!" Yukio spoke up.

Mel nodded. "Maybe…maybe you're right."

Daisuke nodded and held up his digivice. "Is everyone ready?"

The group nodded and took out their digivices in perfect sync. "Ready!"

"Let's do it!" He shouted "All together! Unity!"

"Unity!" They all shouted as lights from their hearts surged down their arm, to the digivices, and out to their Digimon. "Digivolve!"

In the real world, the parents watched as they witnessed this new thing. What exactly was going on? The In-training Digimon felt the power come to them as they began to grow.

"DemiVeemon digivolve to…" DemiVeemon began to digivolve at an enormous rate, passing Rookie and Champion all together to Ultimate! "…AeroVeedramon!" The dinosaur Digimon spread out his wings and gave a roar.

"That's a new one!" Davis said.

"Tokomon digivolve to…MagnaAngemon!"

"Salamon digivolve to…Angewomon!"

"Koromon digivolve to…MetalGreymon!"

"Tanemon digivolve to…Lillymon!"

"Motimon digivolve to…MegaKabuterimon!"

"Bukamon digivolve to…Zudamon!"

"Tsunomon digivolve to…WereGarurumon!"

"Yokomon digivolve to…Garudamon!"

Yolei, Cody, and Ken gasped when their children's Digimon finally reached Ultimate.

"Poromon digivolve to…Garudamon!"

"Wormmon digivolve to…JewelBeemon!"

"Upamon digivolve to…Shakkoumon!"

Twelve Ultimate Level Digimon made everyone gaze in awe, especially seeing Shakkoumon without Angemon's help. "Is this a new thing?" Mimi finally asked. "New Digimon?"

"It's as if they all Warp-Digivolved." Izzy said.

"But what was that thing?" Sora asked. "Unity?"

"Look at the lights." T.K. said, drawing their attention. "It's coming out of them and going through the digivice. Maybe that's the power of their crests."

"But we don't have crests." Davis said. "Are you talking about the symbols on our Digieggs?"

He nodded. "What else would it be?"

Back to the fight, the children stood in their same position, in sync with the others as if they were one. "Go! Fight!" And with that, the Digimon pounced forward and started attacking.

"What about their robotic movements?" Joe asked. "Is that part of that new thing?"

"Unity Digivolution…" Izzy mumbled to himself.

"Go get her!" Kari cheered. "Come on, kids! You can do it!" Everyone else cheered as well as the rest of Odaiba watching.

But in the middle of all of the cheering, Tai had an idea. "Guys, the digivices! Use the light from the digivices!"

"Just like twenty-five years ago." Mimi smiled and held hers out as everyone else did the same.

In the Digital World, Lilithmon cackled as she swatted the Digimon away like flies. "You kids are adorable, thinking that would work!"

The younger DigiDestined let out a breath and fell to the ground, breaking the Unity. "What…what did we do?" Sam asked.

"We worked together!" Daisuke said. "And we can do it again!"

"But I'm tired." Yukio said, barely able to pick himself up.

"Me too." Shoji said, also collapsed next to him.

The children were exhausted, huffing and puffing for air, while their Digimon weren't doing as well. Very few attacks hit Lilithmon but they weren't much. "Nazar Nail!" She took out her claws, ready attack.

But then, a miracle happened.

Flashes of light shown through the depths of the Digital World. It overpowered the darkness of the Dark Castle. "Where is it coming from?" Josh asked, covering his eyes.

"It's beautiful!" Yukio cheered.

Shoji struggled to get back on his feet. "It's Daddy!" He cheered.

"What?" Kim looked around but didn't see anything. "Where?"

"That light." Shoji pointed. "That's from his digivice!"

"How can you tell?" Eriko asked.

Kim shrugged. "He must be using his imagination."

"But it is his!" Shoji stomped his foot.

Hitomi clapped her hands. "It is! Just like the story Dad told me. They used the light from the digivices to power through Darkness!"

"You want light, Lilithmon?" Daisuke said. "We'll give you light!"

"We'll help." Angewomon stood behind Josh. "Come on, Digimon. These children hold the power. Let's help them out."

"Right!" The other Digimon stood behind them.

But Lilithmon was not amused. "You think a little light is going to stop me?"

"No, but a lot will!" Daisuke said. "Is everyone ready?"

The DigiDestined and their Digimon answered "Ready!"

Daisuke held up his digivice. "Come on, everyone! _LET'S DO IT_!"

"Unity!" They all shouted, holding up their digivices. And out came a light that glowed within and dispensed through the devices. The light grew brighter and brighter as the children put their souls into it, for their Digimon and for their parents. The Digimon put their energy into them. Their bond gave them the strength to pull through.

Lilithmon shielded her eyes from the blinding brightness. But then she noticed something. It burned. She tried swiping at her arms to cool them, but it wasn't working. The Digimon wailed as her being began to disintegrate into data. Lilithmon gasped for air. She squirmed a bit on the floor as bits of data started to disappear from her. "You think you've won this time." She said. "But believe me when I say that The Darkness will overcome! And it'll come after you…DigiDestined!" Her last words floated away with her. And Lilithmon was gone.

The fight was over.

The children fell to the floor. "Good…work…" Daisuke said before he and the others passed out.

* * *

Trivia: Having Josh protective of Yukio loosely resembles Kari returning the favor to Tai for protecting her. It's a loose resemblance because Josh would've been protective anyway.

A/N: How was the fight?


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

A/N: Please tell me what you thought of the fight scene. Action isn't my strong point.

* * *

Chapter 17

Everyone rejoiced as the skies began to clear. They were howling with victory when they saw Lilithmon vanquished on their screens. The citizens rushed out of the school gym and went away to celebrate.

"It looks like everything is back to normal." Yoko said to all of the people in the shelter. "So let's head home!"

The many people started to leave the gym, eventually leaving the Digi-parents and Heidi. "Well, that was pretty eventful." Heidi said. "Thank you for the help."

"It's no problem at all!" She gave her a pat on the back just in time for the older DigiDestined to return.

Yolei went right for Heidi and Keanu. "Thank you so much for watching him." She said. "I hope he wasn't any trouble."

"Not at all." Heidi said. "Now if only I can find _my_ son." She looked around the gym.

Davis grinned. "That's right! You have a fourteen-year-old too!"

Heidi smiled back. "And you didn't show me pictures of your son." She nodded towards the computer. "And, yes, he does take after his father."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "You saw that?"

"I think everyone did, Davis." Veemon said, earning him a knock on the head from his partner.

"Speaking of which," Tai said, "we need to go to the Digital World and get them."

Kari nodded. "Maybe the gate's open now."

"I'll try it out." Davis said. "Can I use your computer?" Heidi nodded and turned the laptop towards them. "DigiPort Open!" And with success, the DigiDestined were able to enter the now restoring Digital World.

Meanwhile, Daisuke and the others sat at the shore they sailed in earlier. They all kept quiet, not daring to utter a word or a breath. That is, until Connor spoke. "I can't believe they're gone." He said.

Hitomi nodded. "I guess it was just too much for them to handle." She was referring to the last battle. Their Digimon put all of their energy into the final blow that they sacrificed their own data just to save the Digital World.

"I wish we could've saved them." Daisuke said in a near whisper. No one responded.

Connor took out his camera. "I'm going to miss Tokomon." Finally, he stood up and took his digivice out of his pocket. "What are these things?" He asked. He knew it was a digivice, but with their power in the recent battle, they had to have been something else.

Shoji stood up next and did the same. He clasped it into his small hands and closed his eyes tightly. "I wish…" He said. "I wish we had them back." Then, he burst into tears, making Yukio cry as well. Soon after, all of the kids had tears falling from their faces. Even the "tough boy" Makoto was wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

"Musuko!" The children turned around to see their parents excited to see them. The children screamed with delight before running to greet them. Tears were shedding, kisses and hugs were exchanged, and they were so happy to see each other. But Tai was the first to get serious again.

"Why were you guys so sad?" He asked.

"And where are your Digimon?" Yolei asked.

The kids sighed. "They're gone." Daisuke spoke up for them. "It was too much for them to handle." Then to his father, he asked "You said Digimon don't really die, right?"

Davis didn't say anything. He gave a small nod, but that was it.

"Then, we just have to go pick them up!" Daisuke sprung up.

But before they could react, Hitomi said "No." Everyone turned to her with a quizzical expression.

"Don't you want Motimon back?" Makoto asked her.

"I do." She said, fiddling with her digivice. "But I detect Digimon on my digivice."

"Me too." Eriko said.

Cody placed a hand on his chin. "A new feature?" He asked Izzy.

Izzy nodded. "They must not have D3s. It must be a new branch of digivice."

"I wondered why Connor's digivice was more metallic. I just thought _that_ was the new feature." T.K. said. "So does this mean, they can detect their Digimon?"

Joe chuckled. "That would've been useful to us when we were kids. We had to search high and low for our Digimon!"

"Look!" Yukio cheered as he pointed out.

In the perfect formation, Digieggs started to float in, bobbling with the waves. Then, they washed up onto the shore. Cautiously, the kids picked them up. "No doubt about it." Mel said. "These are ours."

"How can you tell?" Joe asked.

Mel shrugged. "It's just a strong feeling that this is Bukamon." He smiled at his father who smiled back.

"They came back!" Yukio and Shoji cheered.

As all of the children were cheering, Mimi tapped Makoto's shoulder. "There's something I need to tell you about your father." She said. "Your real one."

()()

"We did good, Colorado." Michael said as the Digimon were being returned to the people of America.

Willis nodded, putting an arm around Coco. "We did, Washington. We did."

"I'm from New York." He said.

Willis raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I know. But your name is Washington…"

"Oh, you think you're funny, Colorado?" He gave a playful punch. They all shared in a laugh. "We should work together more often."

Willis nodded. "But there's still one thing we have to do first."

From there, the American team set for Colorado. The streets were full of people and their happy Digimon, but there was one that wasn't too happy. The small Kokomon swerved passed a bunch of people, tears running down its face. "Kokomon!" Someone called.

The Digimon looked up and saw Coco running head on. "Coco!" it cheered, jumping into her arms.

"Well, it looks like this is wrapping up nicely. Don't you think?" Terriermon smiled.

"I'll say!" Willis answered.

Back in New York, Willis sat in his jeep, looking out at the Concrete Jungle. Even if everything was working out nicely, he still felt a little empty inside. Why was that? Then, he got a phone call. He saw the number was Mimi's so he answered it. "Hello?"

But it wasn't her.

"Hey, Dad."

()()

Months later…

()()

"It's Connor again!" Connor pointed his camera to himself.

"And it's Josh!" Josh squeezed in next to his best friend.

"Check it out! We're in the Digital World again!" He showed the audience the beautiful horizon with the butterflies fluttering. "After Lilithmon, this place is just breathing good vibes."

Yukio and Shoji ran to the camera with Koromon and Tsunomon and waved. "Hey, guys!"

"Hi, Yukio. Hi, Shoji." They waved.

"Look over there!" Josh pointed under the tree where Aika and Daisuke sat, listening to music. "Aika and Daisuke are really close friends now, even if Aika still drive Daisuke crazy with her never ending flirting!"

Connor then pointed to Mel and Eriko who were laughing until they shared a kiss. "Remember when we first met them? They're still together." Connor explained.

Kim walked by wearing Makoto's jacket. "Check it out! Makoto finally gave up his jacket!" Josh said.

Connor decided to explain to the audience. "Kim's a traditional girl. She agreed to be Makoto's girlfriend if he gave her his jacket like they did about a billion years ago."

"Great!" Hitomi cheered.

"Easy for you to say." Makoto complained, shivering.

"Don't worry, babe. We'll be home in a few hours." Kim winked as she left with her new boyfriend.

"There's a lot of couples stuff going on." Sam said.

"Yeah, even Davis!" Connor pointed the camera to Davis with his new girlfriend, Heidi.

"Don't forget this final change!" Josh nearly jumped. He ran over to his mom and Uncle Tai. Kari was holding a baby wrapped up into her pink blanket. "This is my baby sister Keiko Nagamiya."

Suddenly, the word got out that they were about to play a game of tag. T.K. smiled down at his son. "Let me take the camera." He said.

"Thanks, Dad!"

"So is everybody ready?" Daisuke asked them. Everyone nodded. "Come on, everybody! Let's do it!"

T.K. watched with the camera recording as the kids ran and played. "Now, it's safe to say the darkness has been vanquished for now." Tai said.

"I think it's safe to say that we can trust these kids." Davis said.

"Our new heroes." Kari nodded.

And there they were. Twelve brave heroes. The torch has officially been passed. Let the new DigiDestined keep up the great work.

The End

* * *

Trivia: I originally had the parents fight the final battle with their kids, but there were too many people and Digimon to think about in one space. I also think this rewrite is a little less confusing.

A/N: What do you guys think? Please review as this may be my last fanfic. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I love writing it.


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